Membrane proteins structure-function relationships, cellular

Biological membranes provide the essential barrier between cells and the organelles of which cells are composed. Cellular membranes are complicated extensive biomolecular sheetlike structures, mostly fonned by lipid molecules held together by cooperative nonco-valent interactions. A membrane is not a static structure, but rather a complex dynamical two-dimensional liquid crystalline fluid mosaic of oriented proteins and lipids. A number of experimental approaches can be used to investigate and characterize biological membranes. However, the complexity of membranes is such that experimental data remain very difficult to interpret at the microscopic level. In recent years, computational studies of membranes based on detailed atomic models, as summarized in Chapter 21, have greatly increased the ability to interpret experimental data, yielding a much-improved picture of the structure and dynamics of lipid bilayers and the relationship of those properties to membrane function [21]. 

Recently the relationships of complement components to cell membrane receptors, cellular immune responses, and antibody production have been stimulated by the knowledge that some complement component genes are located on the histocompatibility chromosome. It is generally felt that structural analysis may show important unsuspected relationships to other proteins coded for in this area. There is harmony in these immune functions, and the details should soon be known. 

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