The Astounding Protein Vectored Topology of Cell Membranes

In Nicholas of Cusa's conception of the ongoing becoming of the microcosm that emulates the macrocosmic, the kernel of Leibniz' monads and Vernadsky's spheres is adumbrated. The recent remarkable discovery of domains of proteins in the organization of the cellular membrane should be understood in the larger context of bearing out the relevance of that tradition. If scientists only understood why the necessary ordering of the biosphere occurs everywhere in this manner of developing progress would proceed with a dizzying speed.

(Phys.org) -- As the interface between the cell and its environment, the cell membrane, which consists of fats and proteins, fulfils a variety of vital functions. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich have performed the first comprehensive analysis of the molecular structure of this boundary layer, and revealed precisely how it is organised. In yeast cells, the entire membrane is made up of independent domains, each containing just one or a few protein types. If a protein is relocated to an inappropriate domain, it may even fail to function. The study shows that the membrane is a kind of patchwork quilt and should help scientists to gain a better understanding of basic cellular processes.