Project title

Gunnar von Heijne - Professor

Research Project
Membrane protein assembly and structure

Research group & Co-workers
Paula Braun, Jan Willem de Gier, Marie Johansson, Ismael Mingarro, IngMarie Nilsson, Annika Sääf, Erik Wallin, Susanne Witt, Thomas Urbig, Magnus Monné, Susana Cristobal


Membrane proteins serve a number of very important functions in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. They are built according to structural principles different from those of globular proteins. A full understanding of membrane proteins requires a conceptual framework where processes of protein translocation across membranes and the physical chemistry of lipid-protein interactions play major roles. Membrane proteins have, for this reason, received relatively little attention from researchers in the protein engineering field.

We have a long-standing interest in problems related to membrane protein assembly and structure. A major goal is to work out the basic rules of membrane protein engineering, and to provide the tools needed for making novel membrane proteins of predefined topology and structure. Over the past 5-10 years, the central importance of positively charged amino acids as determinants of membrane protein topology has been demonstrated, a new, very efficient theoretical method for predicting transmembrane segments has been developed, and synthetic, "simplified" membrane proteins that may in the future serve as scaffolds for building proteins with various functional properties have been made and expressed in E. coli. We have recently developed a new "glycosylation mapping" technique that makes it possible to study the location of transmembrane helices in a lipid bilayer with very high precision.

Recent publications

de Gier, J-W.L., Mansournia, P., Valent, Q.A., Phillips, G.J., Lurink, J. and von Heijne, G. (1996) Assembly of a cytoplasmic membrane proteins in Escherichia coli is dependent on the signal recognition particle. FEBS Lett. 399, 307-309.

Mothes, W., Heinrich, S., Graf, R., Nilsson, IM., von Heijne, G., Brunner, J. and Rapoport, T.A. (1997) Molecular mechanism of membrane protein integration into the endoplasmic reticulum. Cell, 89, 523-533

Mingarro, I., Elofsson, A., and von Heijne, G. (1997) Helix-helix packing in a membrane-like environment. J. Mol. Biol., 272, 633-641.

List of Publications

Acknowledgments

The group is supported by grants from the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council (NFR), the Swedish Technical Research Council (TFR),the Swedish Cancer Foundation, the European Community, and the Göran Gustafsson Foundation.