A portable lipid bilayer system for environmental sensing with a transmembrane protein

Ryuji Kawano; Yutaro Tsuji; Koki Kamiya; Taiga Kodama; Toshihisa Osaki; Norihisa Miki; Shoji Takeuchi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102427

A portable lipid bilayer system for environmental sensing with a transmembrane protein

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 29;9(7):e102427. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102427. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Ryuji Kawano¹, Yutaro Tsuji², Koki Kamiya¹, Taiga Kodama², Toshihisa Osaki³, Norihisa Miki², Shoji Takeuchi³

Affiliations

¹ Artificial Cell Membrane Systems Group, Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Japan.
² Artificial Cell Membrane Systems Group, Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Japan; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Japan.
³ Artificial Cell Membrane Systems Group, Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Japan; CIRMM-IIS, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

This paper describes a portable measurement system for current signals of an ion channel that is composed of a planar lipid bilayer. A stable and reproducible lipid bilayer is formed in outdoor environments by using a droplet contact method with a micropipette. Using this system, we demonstrated that the single-channel recording of a transmembrane protein (alpha-hemolysin) was achieved in the field at a high-altitude (∼3623 m). This system would be broadly applicable for obtaining environmental measurements using membrane proteins as a highly sensitive sensor.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
Biosensing Techniques / methods*
Environmental Monitoring / instrumentation*
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Lipid Bilayers / metabolism*
Membrane Proteins / metabolism*

Substances

Lipid Bilayers
Membrane Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (No. 23107534), Challenging Exploratory Research (No. 24655072), Young Scientists (A) (No. 25708024), and Scientific Research (A) (No. 25246071) from MEXT (KAKENHI) in Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.