Chemosensory membrane proteins such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) drive flavor perception of food formulations. To achieve this, a detailed understanding of the structure and function of these membrane proteins is needed, which is often limited by the extraction and purification methods involved. The proposed nanodisc methodology helps overcome some of these existing challenges such as protein stability and solubilization along with their reconstitution from a native cell-membrane environment. Being well-established in structural biology procedures, nanodiscs offer this elegant solution by using, e.g., a membrane scaffold protein (MSP) or styrene–maleic acid (SMA) polymer, which interacts directly with the cell membrane during protein reconstitution. Such derived proteins retain their biophysical properties without compromising the membrane architecture. Here, we seek to show that these lipidic systems can be explored for insights with a focus on chemosensory membrane protein morphology and structure, conformational dynamics of protein–ligand interactions, and binding kinetics to answer pending questions in flavor research. Additionally, the compatibility of nanodiscs across varied (labeled or label-free) techniques offers significant leverage, which has been highlighted here.

中文翻译：

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纳米圆盘技术：食品风味研究中化学感应膜蛋白的理化表征方向


G 蛋白偶联受体 (GPCR) 等化学感应膜蛋白可驱动食品配方的风味感知。为了实现这一目标，需要详细了解这些膜蛋白的结构和功能，这通常受到所涉及的提取和纯化方法的限制。所提出的纳米圆盘方法有助于克服一些现有的挑战，例如蛋白质稳定性和溶解性以及它们从天然细胞膜环境中的重建。纳米圆盘在结构生物学过程中得到了广泛应用，它通过使用膜支架蛋白 (MSP) 或苯乙烯-马来酸 (SMA) 聚合物等在蛋白质重构过程中直接与细胞膜相互作用，提供了这种优雅的解决方案。此类衍生蛋白质保留其生物物理特性而不损害膜结构。在这里，我们试图表明，可以探索这些脂质系统以获得见解，重点关注化学感应膜蛋白的形态和结构、蛋白质-配体相互作用的构象动力学以及结合动力学，以回答风味研究中悬而未决的问题。此外，纳米圆盘在各种（标记或无标记）技术中的兼容性提供了重要的优势，这一点已在此强调。