The molecular machines responsible for organizing lipidomes

Datum

05.11.2026

Zeit

00:00 - 00:05

Sprecher

Anne-Claude Gavin

Zugehörigkeit

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Sprache

en

Hauptthema

Biologie

Host

Martin Buitrago Arango and Koichiro Takenaka

Beschreibung

Eukaryotic cells produce thousands of different lipids—collectively known as the lipidome—whose composition is tailored to cellular needs. Lipids are distributed unevenly throughout biological systems, where they accumulate locally, forming membranes with specific compositions and thereby determining the identity and functional specialization of organelles. Due to their hydrophobicity, lipids cannot move freely out of cellular membranes through the cell’s aqueous environment and require transporters—lipid transfer proteins, or LTPs—to carry them. LTPs are soluble molecular machines responsible for transporting lipids, and they are found in all kingdoms of life. They have diverse structures, but many share a common mode of action: they extract specific lipids from membrane bilayers and load them into a hydrophobic pocket, forming water-soluble protein-lipid complexes that isolate cargoes from the aqueous phase. In addition to their cargo, some LTPs mobilize auxiliary lipids that function as exchange currencies or cofactors. They facilitate the uptake or release of the cargo, which would determine the direction of transport and its coupling to metabolism. However, for most LTPs, the identity of cargo and auxiliary lipids remains unknown. The fundamental biochemistry of LTPs remains poorly understood, limiting our ability to study how they function within cells. Our goal is to begin addressing this gap; I will present a recent systematic analysis of the lipid binding properties of human LTPs and discuss the general principles that we have derived from it.

Letztmalig verändert: 26.09.2026, 07:36:01