Abstract
Several models have been proposed to understand the structure and organization of the plasma membrane in living cells. Predicated on equilibrium thermodynamic principles, the fluid-mosaic model of Singer and Nicholson and the model of lipid domains (or membrane rafts) are dominant models, which account for a fluid bilayer and functional lateral heterogeneity of membrane components, respectively. However, the constituents of the membrane and its composition are not maintained by equilibrium mechanisms. Indeed, the living cell membrane is a steady state of a number of active processes, namely, exocytosis, lipid synthesis and transbilayer flip-flop, and endocytosis. In this active milieu, many lipid constituents of the cell membrane exhibit a nanoscale organization that is also at odds with passive models based on chemical equilibrium. Here we provide a detailed description of microscopy and cell biological methods that have served to provide valuable information regarding the nature of nanoscale organization of lipid components in a living cell.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by grants from HFSP(RGP0027/2012) and J.C. Bose Fellowship(Department of Science and Technology, India) to SM. We acknowledge support from the Wellcome Trust, the Nanoscience Mission (Department of Science and Technology, India) for the imaging stations built in the laboratory and the Central Imaging and Flow Facility (NCBS) in NCBS. S.S. would like to acknowledge fellowship support from the NCBS-TIFR Graduate programme.
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Saha, S., Raghupathy, R., Mayor, S. (2015). Homo-FRET Imaging Highlights the Nanoscale Organization of Cell Surface Molecules. In: Verveer, P. (eds) Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1251. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2080-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2080-8_9
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