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Science 29 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5795, pp. 1948 - 1951
DOI: 10.1126/science.1130279
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Reports

Phase Separation of Lipid Membranes Analyzed with High-Resolution Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Mary L. Kraft,1 Peter K. Weber,2 Marjorie L. Longo,3 Ian D. Hutcheon,2 Steven G. Boxer1*

Lateral variations in membrane composition are postulated to play a central role in many cellular events, but it has been difficult to probe membrane composition and organization on length scales of tens to hundreds of nanometers. We present a high-resolution imaging secondary ion mass spectrometry technique to reveal the lipid distribution within a phase-separated membrane with a lateral resolution of ~100 nanometers. Quantitative information about the chemical composition within small lipid domains was obtained with the use of isotopic labels to identify each molecular species. Composition variations were detected within some domains.

1 Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
2 Glenn T. Seaborg Institute & BioSecurity and Nanosciences Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA.
3 Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sboxer{at}stanford.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)