Many critical biological events, including biochemical signaling, membrane traffic, and cell motility, originate at membrane surfaces. Each such event requires that members of a specific group of proteins and lipids rapidly assemble together at a specific site on the membrane surface. Understanding the biophysical mechanisms that stabilize these assemblies is critical to decoding and controlling cellular functions. In this article, we review progress toward a quantitative biophysical understanding of the mechanisms that drive membrane heterogeneity and organization. We begin from a physical perspective, reviewing the fundamental principles and key experimental evidence behind each proposed mechanism. We then shift to a biological perspective, presenting key examples of the role of heterogeneity in biology and asking which physical mechanisms may be responsible. We close with an applied perspective, noting that membrane heterogeneity provides a novel therapeutic target that is being exploited by a growing number of studies at the interface of biology, physics, and engineering.

中文翻译：

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生物膜组织的原理和应用。


许多关键的生物事件，包括生化信号、膜运输和细胞运动，都起源于膜表面。每个此类事件都需要特定蛋白质和脂质组的成员在膜表面的特定位点快速组装在一起。了解稳定这些组件的生物物理机制对于解码和控制细胞功能至关重要。在本文中，我们回顾了对驱动膜异质性和组织的机制进行定量生物物理理解的进展。我们从物理角度开始，回顾每个提出的机制背后的基本原理和关键实验证据。然后，我们转向生物学的角度，提出异质性在生物学中的作用的关键例子，并询问哪些物理机制可能是造成这种现象的原因。我们从应用的角度结束，指出膜异质性提供了一种新的治疗靶点，越来越多的生物学、物理学和工程学交叉领域的研究正在利用这种靶点。