Biological structures with highly curved membranes, such as caveolae and transport vesicles, are essential for signal transduction and membrane trafficking. Although membrane proteins in these structures are subjected to physical stress due to the curvature of the lipid bilayers, the effect of this membrane curvature on protein structure and function remains unclear. In this study, we established an experimental procedure to evaluate membrane curvature-induced structural changes in the prototypical potassium channel KcsA. The effect of a large membrane curvature was estimated using fluorescently labeled KcsA by incorporating it into liposomes with a small diameter (< 30 nm). We found that a large membrane curvature significantly affects the activation gate conformation of the KcsA channel.

中文翻译：

---

大小控制脂质体中的荧光标记揭示了 KcsA 钾通道中膜曲率诱导的结构变化

具有高度弯曲膜的生物结构，例如小窝和运输囊泡，对于信号转导和膜运输至关重要。尽管这些结构中的膜蛋白由于脂双层的曲率而受到物理应力，但这种膜曲率对蛋白质结构和功能的影响仍不清楚。在这项研究中，我们建立了一个实验程序来评估原型钾通道 KcsA 中膜曲率引起的结构变化。使用荧光标记的 KcsA 通过将其掺入小直径 (< 30 nm) 的脂质体中来估计大膜曲率的影响。我们发现大的膜曲率显着影响 KcsA 通道的激活门构象。