Overview
- Editors:
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Kenneth M. Merz
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Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA
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Benoît Roux
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Groupe de Recherche en Transport Membranaire (GRTM) Départements de physique et de chimie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
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About this book
The interface between a living cell and the surrounding world plays a critical role in numerous complex biological processes. Sperm/egg fusion, virus/cell fusion, exocytosis, endocytosis, and ion permeation are a few examples of processes involving membranes. In recent years, powerful tools such as X-ray crystal lography, electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and infra-red and Raman spectroscopy have been developed to characterize the structure and dy namics of biomembranes. Despite this progress, many of the factors responsible for the function of biomembranes are still not well understood. The membrane is a very complicated supramolecular liquid-crystalline structure that is largely composed of lipids, forming a bilayer, to which proteins and other biomolecules are anchored. Often, the lipid bilayer environment is pictured as a hydropho bic structureless slab providing a thermodynamic driving force to partition the amino acids of a membrane protein according to their solubility. However, much of the molecular complexity of the phospholipid bilayer environment is ignored in such a simplified view. It is likely that the atomic details of the polar head group region and the transition from the bulk water to the hydrophobic core of the membrane are important. An understanding of the factors responsible for the function of biomembranes thus requires a better characterization at the molec ular level of how proteins interact with lipid molecules, of how lipids affect protein structure and of how lipid molecules might regulate protein function.
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Table of contents (17 chapters)
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Front Matter
Pages i-xiii
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Computational Issues Regarding Biomembrane Simulation
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- Richard W. Pastor, Scott E. Feller
Pages 3-29
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- Michael Schlenkrich, Jürgen Brickmann, Alexander D. MacKerell Jr., Martin Karplus
Pages 31-81
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- Eric Jakobsson, Shankar Subramaniam, H. Larry Scott
Pages 105-123
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Experimental Probes of Biomembrane Structure and Dynamics
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Front Matter
Pages 125-125
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- Stephen H. White, Michael C. Wiener
Pages 127-144
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- Richard Mendelsohn, Robert G. Snyder
Pages 145-174
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Small Molecules and Peptides in Biomembranes
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Front Matter
Pages 253-253
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- Terry R. Stouch, Donna Bassolino
Pages 255-279
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- Randal R. Ketchem, Benoît Roux, Timothy A. Cross
Pages 299-322
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- K. V. Damodaran, Kenneth M. Merz Jr.
Pages 323-352
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Membrane Proteins
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Front Matter
Pages 353-354
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- Barbara A. Seaton, Mary F. Roberts
Pages 355-403
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- Thomas Heimburg, Derek Marsh
Pages 405-462
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- Ole G. Mouritsen, Paavo K. J. Kinnunen
Pages 463-502
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- Xiche Hu, Dong Xu, Kenneth Hamer, Klaus Schulten, Juergen Koepke, Hartmut Michel
Pages 503-533
Editors and Affiliations
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Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA
Kenneth M. Merz
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Groupe de Recherche en Transport Membranaire (GRTM) Départements de physique et de chimie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Benoît Roux