Low‑q Bicelles Are Mixed Micelles

Bicelles are used in many membrane protein studies because they are thought to be more bilayer-like than micelles. We investigated the properties of “isotropic” bicelles by small-angle neutron scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering, fluorescence anisotropy, and molecular dynamics. All data suggest that bicelles with a q value below 1 deviate from the classic bicelle that contains lipids in the core and detergent in the rim. Thus not all isotropic bicelles are bilayer-like.