Effect of lipid composition on the topography of membrane-associated hydrophobic helices: stabilization of transmembrane topography by anionic lipids

To investigate the effect of lipid structure upon the membrane topography of hydrophobic helices, the behavior of hydrophobic peptides was studied in model membrane vesicles. To define topography, fluorescence and fluorescence quenching methods were used to determine the location of a Trp at the center of the hydrophobic sequence. For peptides with cationic residues flanking the hydrophobic sequence, the stability of the transmembrane (TM) configuration (relative to a membrane-bound non-TM state) increased as a function of lipid composition on the order: 1:1 (mol:mol) 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC):1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine ∼ 6:4 POPC:cholesterol < POPC ∼ dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) < 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-rac-(1-glycerol)] sodium salt (DOPG) ≤ 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-l-serine] sodium salt (DOPS), indicating that the anionic lipids DOPG and DOPS most strongly stabilized the TM configuration. TM stabilization was near maximal at 20-30 mol% anionic lipid, which are physiologically relevant values. TM stabilization by anionic lipid was observed for hydrophobic sequences with a diverse set of sequences (including polyAla), diverse lengths (from 12 to 22 residues), and various cationic flanking residues (H, R, or K), but not when the flanking residues were uncharged. TM stabilization by anionic lipid was also dependent on the number of cationic residues flanking the hydrophobic sequence, but was still significant with only one cationic residue flanking each end of the peptide. These observations are consistent with TM-stabilizing effects being electrostatic in origin. However, Trp located more deeply in DOPS vesicles relative to DOPG vesicles, and peptides in DOPS vesicles showed increased helix formation relative to DOPG and all other lipid compositions. These observations fit a model in which DOPS anchors flanking residues near the membrane surface more strongly than does DOPG and/or increases the stability of the TM state to a greater degree than DOPG. We conclude that anionic lipids can have significant and headgroup structure-specific effects upon membrane protein topography.