Study of protein - lipid associates by means of SAXS and NMR methods

The grant has been spent on operational costs of the small angle X-ray apparatus (Credo) at the Biological Nanochemistry Research-Group of the Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Special glass capillaries for X-ray measurements and an anisotropic protein reference sample have been purchased. We have developed a method to orient anisotropic scattering objects in the samples during the scattering measurement.

We have determined the radius of gyration and shape factors of phospholipid bicelles with different lipid ratios. The shape was also modelled by least-squares fitting an oblate ellipsoidal core-shell model onto the appropriate range of the scattering curves. We have revealed the changes in the shape of the bicelles after adding two membrane-active proteins (melittin, KALP23).

Andrea Bodor - Attila Bóta