Design of PG-Surfactants Bearing Polyacrylamide Polymer Chain to Solubilize Membrane Proteins in a Surfactant-Free Buffer

• Main Authors: Taro Shimamoto, Tatsuki Nakakubo, Tomoyasu Noji, Shuhei Koeda, Keisuke Kawakami, Nobuo Kamiya, Toshihisa Mizuno
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: solubilization surfactants; membrane protein; surfactant-free; photosystem I; polyacrylamide
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/4/1524
• ISSN: 1661-6596; 1422-0067

The development of techniques capable of using membrane proteins in a surfactant-free aqueous buffer is an attractive research area, and it should be elucidated for various membrane protein studies. To this end, we examined a method using new solubilization surfactants that do not detach from membrane protein surfaces once bound. The designed solubilization surfactants, DKDKC₁₂K-PA<em>_n</em> (<i>n</i> = 5, 7, and 18), consist of two parts: one is the lipopeptide-based solubilization surfactant part, DKDKC₁₂K, fand the other is the covalently connected linear polyacrylamide (PA) chain with different <i>M</i>_w values of 5, 7, or 18 kDa. Intermolecular interactions between the PA chains in DKDKC₁₂K-PA<em>_n</em> concentrated on the surfaces of membrane proteins via amphiphilic binding of the DKDKC₁₂K part to the integral membrane domain was observed. Therefore, DKDKC₁₂K-PA<em>_n</em> (n = 5, 7, and 18) could maintain a bound state even after removal of the unbound by ultrafiltration or gel-filtration chromatography. We used photosystem I (PSI) from <i>Thermosynecoccus vulcanus</i> as a representative to assess the impacts of new surfactants on the solubilized membrane protein structure and functions. Based on the maintenance of unique photophysical properties of PSI, we evaluated the ability of DKDKC₁₂K-PA<em>_n</em> (<i>n</i> = 5, 7, and 18) as a new solubilization surfactant.