The formed short-lived complexes are always under a dynamic equilibrium with monomers that will freely diffuse in the membrane. This is because at any given time, only a small number of membrane transient interactions happen.

While it is worth mentioning that there is no absolute clear cut between these two types of membrane interactions, many membrane stable interactions have been well-studied, whereas in comparison, those transient interactions are often more challenging to investigate. In contrast, weak/transient interactions happen only in the range of microseconds to seconds, with a μM–mM binding affinity ( De Keersmaecker et al., 2018 Corradi et al., 2019). Strong/stable interactions last for a long time with binding affinities in the range of fM to nM. Based on the affinity and duration of these interactions, there are two types of membrane interactions: strong/stable and weak/transient.

These membrane components dynamically interact with each other to regulate cell cycles and communications ( Lee, 2003 Contreras et al., 2011 Varshney et al., 2016 Sezgin et al., 2017). We hope this review can be used as a guideline to help the audience to choose proper approaches for studying membrane transient interactions in different membrane trafficking and cell signaling events.Ĭell membranes are composed of various lipid, protein, and carbohydrate compounds. However, each method also has its own limitations. These methods can provide useful information about the strengths, kinetics, and/or spatial patterns of membrane transient interactions. In this review, we have summarized current experimental methods that allow us to detect and analyze short-lived cell membrane protein–protein, lipid–protein, and lipid–lipid interactions. Exciting functions of these transient interactions have been discovered in cellular events such as immune signaling, host–pathogen interactions, and diseases such as cancer. New techniques have emerged to study these previously overlooked membrane transient interactions. Many of these complexes are formed based on low-affinity and transient interactions among various lipids and proteins. Short-lived cell membrane complexes play a key role in regulating cell signaling and communication. Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, United States.Yousef Bagheri †, Ahsan Ausaf Ali † and Mingxu You *

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