The Molecular Principles of Biological Membrane Construction and Function

Abstract

In this review, the authors discuss how the bimodal principle of membrane construction not only organizes a vast body of experimental information about membrane proteins but unifies a wide variety of biological phenomena involving membrane systems. Assumed in the discussion is the universality of the bimodal principle — an assumption which can be defended not only on the theoretical basis that fundamental structures and processes of living cells such as DNA and the hereditary process are invariant but also on the practical basis that we are not aware of well substantiated experimental findings incompatible with this assumption.