The group of investigators listed in this proposal have developed, over the years, many techniques for examining various aspects of membrane structure and function. Steady state fluorescence measurements are a fundamental measurement which is ideally suited to membranous systems and this application will describe several diverse techniques which have been, and will be, used to investigate a series of membrane problems from the most fundamental lipid-lipid interaction to the most complex of cell signalling processes. These projects include: the formation of compositional lipid domains in multilipid systems, the conformation of membrane-bound proteins, the mechanism of protein-lipid interactions, the role of lipid physical properties in the functioning of an integral membrane protein and the mechanism of intracellular signalling. In many of the projects involving membrane proteins, advantage will be taken of site-specific mutagenesis to produce modified proteins with more favorable fluorescent properties.
