Lipid microdomains - plant membranes get organized

The plant plasma membrane is now known to be a more sophisticated structure than was previously thought. Sebastien Mongrand et al. and Georg Borner et aL have isolated specific plasma membrane microdomains ('lipid rafts') that are enriched in sterols and sphingolipids. These rafts contain distinct sets of proteins and might help to explain how plasma membrane proteins are positioned in certain parts of the cell to function in development and signalling.