Revitalizing membrane rafts: new tools and insights

Ten years ago, the lipid raft field was suffering from ambiguous methodology and imprecise nomenclature.New high-resolution imaging methods are now giving insights into raft dynamics. Together with other studies, this has led to changes in our concept of rafts.Rafts in plasma membranes can be characterized by three different states: dynamic nanoscale assemblies, raft platforms stabilized by oligomerization and micrometre-scale phase separation.Lipidomics is beginning to give comprehensive views of the lipid composition of raft domains.Three examples of roles that rafts have in cellular function are: T cell signalling, HIV assembly and membrane trafficking.A key open issue for the field is how lipids interact with integral raft proteins.