Interaction of phospholipid-metal complexes with water-soluble wheat protein

Insoluble lipid-protein complexes are formed in the presence of Ni(II), Ca(II), or Mg(II) by specific components of the water-soluble proteins of wheat flour and either triphosphoinositide or phosphatidyl serine. The pattern of protein species bound by the lipid-metal complex is dependent upon the metal and the phospholipid used. A group of proteins, containing carbohydrate, may be solubilized and recovered by washing the precipitate with acidic chloroform-methanol-water. Analyses of reactive and nonreactive protein species have shown no differences which clearly account for their behavior. Methylation of protein increases binding to lipid; acetylation decreases the interaction. Weak interaction has been observed between certain components of flour proteins and phospholipid in the absence of metal ions, but the components differ from those bound in the presence of metal ions. It is suggested that properly oriented groups of the protein molecules are chelating onto available coordination positions of metal ions already bound to phospholipid.