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Lipid Rafts pp 221–230Cite as

X-Ray Diffraction to Determine the Thickness of Raft and Nonraft Bilayers

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 398))

Abstract

Low-angle X-ray diffraction is a powerful method to analyze the structure of membrane bilayers. Specifically, the technique can be used to determine accurately the thickness of fully hydrated bilayers. Herein details are presented showing how this technique can measure the difference in thickness of bilayers in detergent-resistant membranes and detergent-soluble membranes extracted from model systems known to contain both raft and nonraft domains. The observed thickness difference may be critical in the sorting of transmembrane proteins between raft and nonraft bilayers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Thomas J. McIntosh

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  1. Thomas J. McIntosh
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

    Thomas J. McIntosh

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© 2007 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

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McIntosh, T.J. (2007). X-Ray Diffraction to Determine the Thickness of Raft and Nonraft Bilayers. In: McIntosh, T.J. (eds) Lipid Rafts. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 398. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-513-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-513-8_15

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-729-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-513-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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