Neutron diffraction analysis of cytochrome b5 reconstituted in deuterated lipid multilayers.

Cytochrome b5 was reconstituted with a highly deuterated phospholipid to form ordered multilayers consisting of repeated centrosymmetric pairs of asymmetric lipid-protein bilayers. Lamellar neutron diffraction data were collected to approximately 29 A resolution, and have been interpreted using models for the interaction of the membrane-binding domain of cytochrome b5 with the lipid bilayer. A range of different models was examined, and those in which the protein penetrates well into the bilayer, possibly spanning it, are favored.