Proteolipid

A proteolipid is a protein covalently linked to lipid molecules, which can be fatty acids, isoprenoids or sterols. The process of such a linkage is known as protein lipidation, and falls into the wider category of acylation and post-translational modification. Proteolipids are abundant in brain tissue, and are also present in many other animal and plant tissues. They include ghrelin, a peptide hormone associated with feeding. Many proteolipids have bound fatty acid chains,[1] which often provide an interface for interacting with biological membranes[2] and act as lipidons that direct proteins to specific zones.[3]

Proteolipids were discovered serendipitously in 1951 by Jordi Folch Pi and Marjorie Lees while extracting sulfatides from brain lipids.[4]

They are not to be confused with lipoproteins, a kind of spherical assembly made up of many molecules of lipids and some apolipoproteins.

  1. ^ "MeSH Browser". meshb.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference lipidhome was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Kervin, Troy A.; Overduin, Michael (2024-02-27). "Membranes are functionalized by a proteolipid code". BMC Biology. 22 (1): 46. doi:10.1186/s12915-024-01849-6. ISSN 1741-7007. PMC 10898092. PMID 38414038.
  4. ^ Lees, Marjorie B. (1998-03-01). "A History of Proteolipids: A Personal Memoir". Neurochemical Research. 23 (3): 261–271. doi:10.1023/A:1022488912996. ISSN 1573-6903. PMID 9482238. S2CID 523291.