Role of Cell Membranes in Key Biological Processes

The cell membrane is the site of diverse molecular processes:

• signal transduction
• endo- and exocytosis
• protein maturation
• lipid and protein trafficking
• cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction

Many of these processes utilize the membrane to increase the efficiency of proteins. Furthermore, association with the membrane confers conformational changes upon proteins which actually enables their activation.

Regulation of these membrane-based processes may be further distinguished through the action of specialized domains called lipid rafts. Lipid rafts are dynamic and discrete membrane sub-compartments consisting of a specific population of proteins and lipids.

Rafts can both positively and negatively regulate specific processes by maintaining an environment conducive to the interaction of some proteins while excluding others. In this way rapid spatial and temporal control over reactions can be achieved with the proteins already present in the membrane.

Many disease events are membrane and raft processes, including those occurring in allergy and inflammation, cancer, viral and bacterial infections, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes.