Proteins are essential and abundant components of cellular membranes. Being densely packed within the limited surface area, proteins fulfil essential tasks for life, which include transport, signalling and maintenance of cellular homeostasis. The high protein density promotes nonspecific interactions, which affect the dynamics of the membrane‐associated processes, but also contribute to higher levels of membrane organization. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary of the most recent findings of diverse effects resulting from high protein densities in both living membranes and reconstituted systems and display why the crowding phenomenon should be considered and assessed when studying cellular pathways. Biochemical, biophysical and computational studies reveal effects of crowding on the translational mobility of proteins and lipids, oligomerization and clustering of integral membrane proteins, and also folding and aggregation of proteins at the lipid membrane interface. The effects of crowding pervade to larger length scales, where interfacial and transmembrane crowding shapes the lipid membrane. Finally, we discuss the design and development of fluorescence‐based sensors for macromolecular crowding and the perspectives to use those in application to cellular membranes and suggest some emerging topics in studying crowding at biological interfaces.

中文翻译：

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越多越好：大分子拥挤对生物膜结构和动力学的影响。

蛋白质是细胞膜必不可少的组成部分。蛋白质在有限的表面积内密集包装，可以完成生命中必不可少的任务，包括运输，信号传导和维持细胞稳态。高蛋白密度促进非特异性相互作用，从而影响膜相关过程的动力学，但也有助于更高水平的膜组织。在这里，我们提供了由活膜和重组系统中高蛋白密度引起的各种效应的最新发现的全面总结，并说明了为什么在研究细胞途径时应考虑和评估拥挤现象的原因。生化，生物物理和计算研究表明，拥挤对蛋白质和脂质的翻译迁移率有影响，完整膜蛋白的寡聚和聚类，以及脂质膜界面处蛋白的折叠和聚集。拥挤的影响遍及更大的长度尺度，其中界面和跨膜拥挤形成脂质膜。最后，我们讨论了用于大分子拥挤的基于荧光的传感器的设计和开发，以及将其应用于细胞膜的观点，并提出了一些研究生物界面拥挤的新兴话题。