Abstract
Amphipols are amphipathic polymers that stabilize membrane proteins isolated from their native membrane. They have been functionalized with various chemical groups in the past years for protein labeling and protein immobilization. This large toolbox of functionalized amphipols combined with their interesting physico-chemical properties give opportunities to selectively add multiple functionalities to membrane proteins and to tune them according to the needs. This unique combination of properties makes them one of the most versatile strategies available today for exploiting membrane proteins onto surfaces for various applications in synthetic biology. This review summarizes the properties of functionalized amphipols suitable for synthetic biology approaches.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- A8-35:
-
Poly(sodium acrylate)-based amphipol comprising 35 % of free carboxylate, 25 % of octyl chains and 40 % of isopropyl groups
- APol:
-
Amphipol
- BAPol:
-
Biotinylated A8-35
- BG:
-
Benzyl guanine
- BR:
-
Bacteriorhodopsin
- CMC:
-
Critical micelle concentration
- DAPol:
-
Deuterated A8-35
- E. coli :
-
Escherichia coli
- FAPol:
-
Fluorescently labeled A8-35
- GFP:
-
Green fluorescent protein
- GPCR:
-
G protein-coupled receptor
- HAPol:
-
Hydrogenated A8-35
- HistAPol:
-
Histidine-tagged A8-35
- ImidAPol:
-
Imidazol-tagged A8-35
- MPs:
-
Membrane proteins
- NAPol:
-
Non-ionic glycosylated APol
- NBD:
-
7-Nitro-1,2,3-benzoxadiazole
- ND:
-
Nanodisc
- NP:
-
Nanoparticle
- NTA:
-
Nitriloacetic acid
- OligAPol:
-
Oligodeoxynucleotide tagged A8-35
- PerDAPol:
-
Perdeuterated A8-35
- POR:
-
Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase
- SAPol:
-
Sulfonated APol
- SPR:
-
Surface plasmon resonance
- tOmpA:
-
Transmembrane domain of the Escherichia coli outer membrane protein A
References
Althoff T, Mills DJ, Popot J-L, Kühlbrandt W (2011) Arrangement of electron transport chain components in bovine mitochondrial supercomplex I1III2IV1. EMBO J 30:4652–4664
Andrell J, Tate CG (2013) Overexpression of membrane proteins in mammalian cells for structural studies. Mol Membr Biol 30:52–63
Baneres JL, Popot JL, Mouillac B (2011) New advances in production and functional folding of G-protein-coupled receptors. Trends Biotechnol 29:314–322
Basit H, Sharma KS, Van der Heyden A, Gondran C, Breyton C, Dumy P, Winnik FM, Labbe P (2012) Amphipol mediated surface immobilization of FhuA: a platform for label-free detection of the bacteriophage protein pb5. Chem Commun 48:6037–6039
Bayburt TH, Sligar SG (2010) Membrane protein assembly into Nanodiscs. FEBS Lett 584:1721–1727
Bazzacco P, Billon-Denis E, Sharma KS, Catoire LJ, Mary S, Le Bon C, Point E, Baneres JL, Durand G, Zito F, Pucci B, Popot JL (2012) Nonionic homopolymeric amphipols: application to membrane protein folding, cell-free synthesis, and solution nuclear magnetic resonance. Biochemistry 51:1416–1430
Bechara C, Bolbach G, Bazzaco P, Sharma KS, Durand G, Popot J-L, Zito F, Sagan S (2012) Maldi-tof mass spectrometry analysis of amphipol-trapped membrane proteins. Anal Chem 84:6128–6135
Bieri C, Ernst OP, Heyse S, Hofmann KP, Vogel H (1999) Micropatterned immobilization of a G protein-coupled receptor and direct detection of G protein activation. Nat Biotechnol 17:1105–1108
Breyton C, Pucci B, Popot J-L (2010) Amphipols and fluorinated surfactants: two alternatives to detergents for studying membrane proteins in vitro. In: Mus-Veteau I (ed) Heterologous Expression of Membrane Proteins. Springer, Berlin, pp 219–245
Catoire LJ, Zoonens M, van Heijenoort C, Giusti F, Popot JL, Guittet E (2009) Inter- and intramolecular contacts in a membrane protein/surfactant complex observed by heteronuclear dipole-to-dipole cross-relaxation. J Magn Reson 197:91–95
Catoire LJ, Damian M, Giusti F, Martin A, van Heijenoort C, Popot JL, Guittet E, Baneres JL (2010) Structure of a GPCR ligand in its receptor-bound state: Leukotriene B4 adopts a highly constrained conformation when associated to human BLT2. J Am Chem Soc 132:9049–9057
Champeil P, Menguy T, Tribet C, Popot J-L, le Maire M (2000) Interaction of amphipols with sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase. J Biol Chem 275:18623–18637
Charvolin D, Perez JB, Rouviera F, Giusti F, Bazzacco P, Abdine A, Rappaport F, Martinez KL, Popot JL (2009) The use of amphipols as universal molecular adapters to immobilize membrane proteins onto solid supports. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:405–410
Charvolin D, Dezi M, Picard M, Huang LS, Berry EA, Popot JL (2014) Solution behavior and crystallization of cytochrome bc1 in the presence of amphipols. Submitted to the J Membrane Biol
Cvetkov TL, Huynh KW, Cohen MR, Moiseenkova-Bell VY (2011) Molecular architecture and subunit organization of TRPA1 ion channel revealed by electron microscopy. J Biol Chem 286:38168–38176
Dahmane T, Damian M, Mary S, Popot JL, Baneres JL (2009) Amphipol-Assisted in vitro folding of G protein-coupled receptors. Biochemistry 48:6516–6521
Damian M, Marie J, Leyris JP, Fehrentz JA, Verdie P, Martinez J, Baneres JL, Mary S (2012) High constitutive activity is an intrinsic feature of ghrelin receptor protein. A study with a functional monomeric GHS-R1a receptor reconstituted in lipid discs. J Biol Chem 287:3630–3641
Della Pia EA, Holm JV, Lloret N, Le Bon C, Popot J-L, Zoonens M, Nygård J, Martinez KL (2014) A step closer to membrane protein multiplexed nanoarrays using biotin-doped polypyrrole. ACS Nano 8:1844–1853
Denisov I, Grinkova Y, Lazarides A, Sligar S (2004) Directed self-assembly of monodisperse phospholipid bilayer Nanodiscs with controlled size. J Am Chem Soc 126:3477–3487
Ferrandez Y, Dezi M, Bosco M, Urvoas A, Valerio M, Le Bon C, Giusti F, Broutin I, Durand G, Polidori A, Popot JL, Picard M, Minard P (2014) Amphipol-mediated screening of molecular ortheses specific for membrane protein targets. J Membrane Biol (submitted)
Friedrich MG, Giess F, Naumann R, Knoll W, Ataka K, Heberle J, Hrabakova J, Murgida DH, Hildebrandt P (2004) Active site structure and redox processes of cytochrome c oxidase immobilised in a novel biomimetic lipid membrane on an electrode. Chem Commun 21:2376–2377
Fruh V, IJzerman AP, Siegal G (2011) How to catch a membrane protein in action: a review of functional membrane protein immobilization strategies and their applications. Chem Rev 111:640–656
Gautier A, Juillerat A, Heinis C, Correa IR, Kindermann M, Beaufils F, Johnsson K (2008) An engineered protein tag for multiprotein labeling in living cells. Chem Biol 15:128–136
Giusti F, Popot JL, Tribet C (2012) Well-defined critical association concentration and rapid adsorption at the air/water interface of a short amphiphilic polymer, amphipol A8-35: a study by forster resonance energy transfer and dynamic surface tension measurements. Langmuir 28:10372–10380
Giusti F, Kessler P, Westh Hansen R, Della Pia EA, Le Bon C, Mourier G, Popot J-L, Martinez KL, Zoonens M (2014a) Synthesis of polyhistidine- or Imidazole-bearing Amphipols and their use for immobilization of membrane proteins (in preparation)
Giusti F, Rieger J, Catoire LJ, Qian S, Calabrese AN, Watkinson TG, Casiraghi M, Radford S, Ashcroft AE, Popot JL (2014b) Synthesis, characterization and applications of a perdeuterated amphipol. J Membrane Biol. doi:10.1007/s00232-014-9656-x
Gohon Y, Pavlov G, Timmins P, Tribet C, Popot JL, Ebel C (2004) Partial specific volume and solvent interactions of amphipol A8-35. Anal Biochem 334:318–334
Gohon Y, Giusti F, Prata C, Charvolin D, Timmins P, Ebel C, Tribet C, Popot JL (2006) Well-defined nanoparticles formed by hydrophobic assembly of a short and polydisperse random terpolymer, amphipol A8-35. Langmuir 22:1281–1290
Gohon Y, Dahmane T, Ruigrok RWH, Schuck P, Charvolin D, Rappaport F, Timmins P, Engelman DM, Tribet C, Popot JL, Ebel C (2008) Bacteriorhodopsin/amphipol complexes: structural and functional properties. Biophys J 94:3523–3537
Goldsmith BR, Mitala JJ, Josue J, Castro A, Lerner MB, Bayburt TH, Khamis SM, Jones RA, Brand JG, Sligar SG, Luetje CW, Gelperin A, Rhodes PA, Discher BM, Johnson ATC (2011) Biomimetic chemical sensors using nanoelectronic readout of olfactory receptor proteins. ACS Nano 5:5408–5416
Gottschalk I, Li YM, Lundahl P (2000) Chromatography on cells: analyses of solute interactions with the glucose transporter Glut1 in human red cells adsorbed on lectin-gel beads. J Chromatogr B 739:55–62
Harding PJ, Hadingham TC, McDonnell JM, Watts A (2006) Direct analysis of a GPCR-agonist interaction by surface plasmon resonance. Eur Biophys J Biophys Lett 35:709–712
Hovers J, Potschies M, Polidori A, Pucci B, Raynal S, Bonneté F, Serrano-Vega MJ, Tate CG, Picot D, Pierre Y (2011) A class of mild surfactants that keep integral membrane proteins water-soluble for functional studies and crystallization. Mol Membr Biol 28:171–181
Iversen L, Cherouati N, Berthing T, Stamou D, Martinez KL (2008) Templated protein assembly on micro-contact-printed surface patterns. Use of the SNAP-tag protein functionality. Langmuir 24:6375–6381
Jensen K, Jensen PE, Moller BL (2011) Light-driven cytochrome p450 hydroxylations. ACS Chem Biol 6:533–539
Jonkheijm P, Weinrich D, Schroder H, Niemeyer CM, Waldmann H (2008) Chemical strategies for generating protein biochips. Angew Chem Int Ed 47:9618–9647
Khalil AS, Collins JJ (2010) Synthetic biology: applications come of age. Nat Rev Genet 11:367–379
Krueger AT, Imperiali B (2013) Fluorescent amino acids: modular building blocks for the assembly of new tools for chemical biology. ChemBioChem 14:788–799
Kumar M, Grzelakowski M, Zilles J, Clark M, Meier W (2007) Highly permeable polymeric membranes based on the incorporation of the functional water channel protein Aquaporin Z. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:20719–20724
Ladaviere C, Toustou M, Gulik-Krzywicki T, Tribet C (2001) Slow reorganization of small phosphatidylcholine vesicles upon adsorption of amphiphilic polymers. J Colloid Interface Sci 241:178–187
Laitinen OH, Nordlund HR, Hytonen VP, Kulomaa MS (2007) Brave new (strept)avidins in biotechnology. Trends Biotechnol 25:269–277
Le Bon C, Della Pia EA, Giusti F, Lloret N, Zoonens M, Martinez KL, Popot JL (2014a) Synthesis of an oligonucleotide-derivatized amphipol and its use to trap and immobilize membrane proteins. Nucleic Acid Research. doi:10.1093/nar/gku250
Le Bon C, Della Pia EA, Giusti F, Lloret N, Zoonens M, Martinez KL, Popot JL (2014b) Labeling and functionalizing amphipols for biological applications. J Membrane Biol. doi:10.1007/s00232-014-9655-yl
Leney AC, McMorran LM, Radford SE, Ashcroft AE (2012) Amphipathic polymers enable the study of functional membrane proteins in the gas phase. Anal Chem 84:9841–9847
Liu YCC, Rieben N, Iversen L, Sorensen BS, Park J, Nygard J, Martinez KL (2010) Specific and reversible immobilization of histidine-tagged proteins on functionalized silicon nanowires. Nanotechnology 21:245105
Marks KM, Nolan GP (2006) Chemical labeling strategies for cell biology. Nat Methods 3:591–596
Martinez KL, Gohon Y, Corringer PJ, Tribet C, Merola F, Changeux JP, Popot JL (2002) Allosteric transitions of Torpedo acetylcholine receptor in lipids, detergent and amphipols: molecular interactions vs. physical constraints. FEBS Lett 528:251–256
Martinez KL, Meyer BH, Hovius R, Lundstrom K, Vogel H (2003) Ligand binding to G protein-coupled receptors in tethered cell membranes. Langmuir 19:10925–10929
Nagy JK, Hoffmann AK, Keyes MH, Gray DN, Oxenoid K, Sanders CR (2001) Use of amphipathic polymers to deliver a membrane protein to lipid bilayers. FEBS Lett 501:115–120
Nath A, Atkins WM, Sligar SG (2007) Applications of phospholipid bilayer nanodiscs in the study of membranes and membrane proteins. Biochemistry 46:2059–2069
Niemeyer CM, Burger W, Hoedemakers RMJ (1998) Hybridization characteristics of biomolecular adaptors, covalent DNA streptavidin conjugates. Bioconjug Chem 9:168–175
Oh EH, Song HS, Park TH (2011) Recent advances in electronic and bioelectronic noses and their biomedical applications. Enzyme Microb Technol 48:427–437
Opačić M, Popot J-L, Durand G, Bosco M, Polidori A, Croce R (2014) Amphipols and photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes. J Membrane Biol (submitted)
Perez JB, Martinez KL, Segura JM, Vogel H (2006) Supported cell-membrane sheets for functional fluorescence imaging of membrane proteins. Adv Funct Mater 16:306–312
Perlmutter JD, Drasler WJ, Xie WS, Gao JL, Popot JL, Sachs JN (2011) All-atom and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of a membrane protein stabilizing polymer. Langmuir 27:10523–10537
Planchard N, Point E, Dahmane T, Giusti F, Renault M, Le Bon C, Durand G, Milon A, Guittet E, Zoonens M, Popot JL, Catoire LJ (2014) The use of amphipols for solution NMR studies of membrane proteins: advantages and limitations as compared to other media. J Membrane Biol. doi:10.1007/s00232-014-9654-z
Pocanschi CL, Dahmane T, Gohon Y, Rappaport F, Apell HJ, Kleinschmidt JH, Popot JL (2006) Amphipathic polymers: tools to fold integral membrane proteins to their active form. Biochemistry 45:13954–13961
Polovinkin V, Gushchin I, Balandin T, Chervakov P, Round E, Schevchenko V, Popov A, Borshchevskiy V, Popot JL, Gordeliy V (2014) High-resolution structure of a membrane protein by direct transfer from amphipol to lipid mesophase. J Membrane Biol (submitted)
Popot JL (2010) Amphipols, nanodiscs, and fluorinated surfactants: three nonconventional approaches to studying membrane proteins in aqueous solutions. Annu Rev Biochem 79(79):737–775
Popot JL, Berry EA, Charvolin D, Creuzenet C, Ebel C, Engelman DM, Flotenmeyer M, Giusti F, Gohon Y, Herve P, Hong Q, Lakey JH, Leonard K, Shuman HA, Timmins P, Warschawski DE, Zito F, Zoonens M, Pucci B, Tribet C (2003) Amphipols: polymeric surfactants for membrane biology research. Cell Mol Life Sci 60:1559–1574
Popot JL, Althoff T, Bagnard D, Baneres JL, Bazzacco P, Billon-Denis E, Catoire LJ, Champeil P, Charvolin D, Cocco MJ, Cremel G, Dahmane T, de la Maza LM, Ebel C, Gabel F, Giusti F, Gohon Y, Goormaghtigh E, Guittet E, Kleinschmidt JH, Kuhlbrandt W, Le Bon C, Martinez KL, Picard M, Pucci B, Sachs JN, Tribet C, van Heijenoort C, Wien F, Zito F, Zoonens M (2011) Amphipols from A to Z. Annu Rev Biophys 40(40):379–408
Qu XL, Alvarez PJJ, Li QL (2013) Applications of nanotechnology in water and wastewater treatment. Water Res 47:3931–3946
Schmid EL, Tairi AP, Hovius R, Vogel H (1998) Screening ligands for membrane protein receptors by total internal reflection fluorescence: the 5-HT3 serotonin receptor. Anal Chem 70:1331–1338
Song HS, Kwon OS, Lee SH, Park SJ, Kim UK, Jang J, Park TH (2013) Human taste receptor-functionalized field effect transistor as a human-like nanobioelectronic tongue. Nano Lett 13:172–178
Tao H, Lee SC, Moeller A, Roy RS, Siu FY, Zimmermann J, Stevens RC, Potter CS, Carragher B, Zhang Q (2013) Engineered nanostructured β-sheet peptides protect membrane proteins. Nat Methods 10:759–761
Tifrea DF, Sun G, Pal S, Zardeneta G, Cocco MJ, Popot J-L, De la Maza LM (2011) Amphipols stabilize the Chlamydia major outer membrane protein and enhance its protective ability as a vaccine. Vaccine 29:4623–4631
Tribet C, Audebert R, Popot JL (1997) Stabilization of hydrophobic colloidal dispersions in water with amphiphilic polymers: application to integral membrane proteins. Langmuir 13:5570–5576
Tribet C, Diab C, Dahmane T, Zoonens M, Popot JL, Winnik FM (2009) Thermodynamic characterization of the exchange of detergents and amphipols at the surfaces of integral membrane proteins. Langmuir 25:12623–12634
Ujwal R, Bowie JU (2011) Crystallizing membrane proteins using lipidic bicelles. Methods 55:337–341
Vial F, Rabhi S, Tribet C (2005) Association of octyl-modified poly(acrylic acid) onto unilamellar vesicles of lipids and kinetics of vesicle disruption. Langmuir 21:853–862
Weber W, Fussenegger M (2012) Emerging biomedical applications of synthetic biology. Nat Rev Genet 13:21–35
Weinrich D, Jonkheijm P, Niemeyer CM, Waldmann H (2009) Applications of protein biochips in biomedical and biotechnological research. Angew Chem Int Ed 48:7744–7751
Yang Q, Lundahl P (1994) Steric immobilization of liposomes in chromatographic gel beads and incorporation of integral membrane-proteins into their lipid bilayers. Anal Biochem 218:210–221
Zoonens M, Catoire LJ, Giusti F, Popot JL (2005) NMR study of a membrane protein in detergent-free aqueous solution. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:8893–8898
Zoonens M, Giusti F, Zito F, Popot JL (2007) Dynamics of membrane protein/amphipol association studied by Förster resonance energy transfer: implications for in vitro studies of amphipol-stabilized membrane proteins. Biochemistry 46:10392–10404
Zoonens M, Zito F, Martinez KL, Popot JL (2014) Amphipols: a general introduction and some protocols. In: Mus-Veteau I (ed) Membrane proteins production for structural analysis. Springer, New York
Acknowledgments
We thank Jean-Luc Popot for fruitful discussions and feedback on the manuscript. This work was supported by the UNIK Synthetic Biology, funded by the Danish Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation; by the Lundbeck Foundation Center for Biomembranes in Nanomedicine (CBN) and the Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation (The Danish Council for Strategic Research—ANaCell project), by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), by Paris-7 University (Sorbonne Paris Cité), and by the “Initiative d’Excellence” program from the French State (Grant “DYNAMO”, ANR-11-LABX-0011-01). E.D.P. is supported by a Danish Research Council fellowship award (FTP-12-132506). M.Z is a recipient of Projet International de Coopération Scientifique (APIC–DK, SURFAPol project) from the CNRS.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Della Pia, E.A., Hansen, R.W., Zoonens, M. et al. Functionalized Amphipols: A Versatile Toolbox Suitable for Applications of Membrane Proteins in Synthetic Biology. J Membrane Biol 247, 815–826 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-014-9663-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-014-9663-y