engleski

Design and characterization of marine/based plasma membrane vesicles

Screening of natural products found in the marine environment is a highly competitive field where pharmaceutical companies have their interests. Systematic understanding of an isolated bio-interface such as plasma membrane vesicle when other complex biochemical processes within the cells are excluded, may be a prerequisite for many future innovations. Unique to photosynthetic marine microalga Dunaliella is the absence of a rigid cell wall. Dunaliella possesses the glycocalyx type of cell envelope and therefore, softness and deformability will be harnessed in the isolation of its plasma membrane by osmotic stress. Isolated plasma membrane vesicle could mimics a biological membrane since it possesses a natural complex assembly of proteins, sugars, and a mixture of lipids, which is a step up from the commonly used model system such as a phospholipid vesicle. Different imaging techniques have been employed in order to examine structural characterization of vesicle and to image the efficiency of intracellular release. We compared qualitatively molecular transport of fluorescent dye through the membrane systems of different level of complexities (plasma membrane vs. model lipid membrane). The observed differences in transport are ascribed to differences in membranes’ structural features and physicochemical properties.

algae ; calcein ; GUV ; plasma membrane vesicles ; transport

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