BioEssays 2∕2016

Revisiting the lipid raft hypothesis . On pages 129–139, Eva Sevcsik and Gerhard Schütz review and critically discuss the lipid raft model of cell membranes. In this model plasma membranes have a heterogeneous composition consisting of sphingolipid and cholesterol clusters (rafts) and non‐raft domains. This compartmentalizes proteins and modulates their functionality. The authors not only examine findings supporting the raft model and discuss its impact on recent findings, but also present alternative mechanisms to account for plasma membrane heterogeneity.