Interactive Software for the study of membrane biology: lipid composition, solubilization and liposome reconstitution and characterization

Biological  membranes define cellular boundaries, divide cells into discrete  compartments, organize complex reaction sequences, and act in signal reception and energy transformations. This topic is studied in all undergraduate biochemistry  courses.  Visualization  of  structures  generally  facilitates  the  understanding  of  many  related  topics  of membrane composition, structures, and protein interactions but they lack in many events that occurs in membranes. Also,  at  the  present  time,  animations  exploring  solubilization  and  reconstitution  of  membrane  proteins  in  vesicular systems are not available. Thus, we have developed a software  named  AnimaBio, in Macromedia  Flash 7.0, whose principal objective was the animation of some  processes  used  in the study  of membrane  biology and it was  didactically  divided  in:  (1) composition  and  physics  properties;  (2)  construction  of  systems  mimetically  to  natural  membranes  and  (3) characterization of these biomimetic systems using experimental examples.The topics explained in each section were: (1) Membranes composition; lipids and proteins distribution; fluid mosaic  model;  the  basic  structural  unit  of  lipid  bilayer;  peripheral  proteins;  anchored  proteins;  integral  proteins; covalently attached oligosaccharides; solubilization of proteins and hemolytic effects; (2) construction of biomimetical systems using different techniques; sonication followed by direct insertion of proteins and co-solubilization methods; (3)  Kinetic  properties  of  the  enzyme,  reconstituted  in  the  vesicular  system,  using  examples  of  actions  of  different agents such as: inhibitors, detergents, ionophores and photosensitive dyes. All topics were illustrated in the animation using  some  examples  such  as:  erythrocytes  membranes;  alkaline  phosphatase  (which  have  a  GPI  anchor)  and integral proteins such as Na,K-ATPase. AnimaBio has many animations exploring some fragile concepts and each part was also explained in a text. Some items were enriched with glossary definitions, compound structures and technical terminology. This approach allows the student to have a non-fragmented view of membrane biology and to understand the importance of a given interaction  of  lipid  and  protein  as  a  whole.  Thus,  the  software  provides  a  non-passive  study  facilitating  the comprehension  of  this  important  topic  in  the  biochemistry  course  and  also  motivating  the  student  to  search  the literature for similar examples.