Abstract
Although there has been significant progress in our understand-ing of how water-soluble proteins fold (1, 2), the factors and mech-anism driving correct folding of integral membrane proteins arelargely unknown. The folding of membrane proteins, like theirsoluble counterparts, is dictated by their amino acid sequence andtheir environment (Fig. 1). Integral membrane proteins can alsointeract with other proteins within the membrane and with thehydrophobic and hydrophilic components of the lipid bilayer itselfduring and after attainment of native structure. The role of lipidsas an important structure-forming environment was elucidatedduring the last decade (3). However, the role individual lipids playas part of the protein folding machinery has been largely ignored.Are individual lipids mobilized to protect and guide the nascentpolypeptide chain during its membrane assembly? Do lipids act asspecific molecular chaperones or transient ligands during the as-sembly of a membrane protein?
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