Design of ultra-swollen lipidic mesophases for the crystallization of membrane proteins with large extracellular domains

In meso crystallization of membrane proteins from lipidic mesophases is central to protein structural biology but limited to membrane proteins with small extracellular domains (ECDs), comparable to the water channels (3–5 nm) of the mesophase. Here we present a strategy expanding the scope of in meso crystallization to membrane proteins with very large ECDs. We combine monoacylglycerols and phospholipids to design thermodynamically stable...