With Lipid Rafts, Context Is Everything (Biophysical Journal)

The lipid makeup of the mammalian plasma membrane (PM) continues to hold the fascination of biophysicists. Although it has long been known that the PM contains hundreds of chemically distinct lipids and a great deal of cholesterol (40% or more by mole fraction), we are still piecing together the puzzle of why cells evolved this compositional complexity. A major step forward was the realization that nonrandom mixing of different lipids could impart functionality, such as the sorting of proteins based on a differential affinity for membrane environments of different composition and physical properties.