A proteome-wide screen for membrane-interactions in intrinsically disordered regions of transmembrane proteins reveals a role in disease

Transmembrane proteins mediate essential cellular processes including signaling, transport, and ion flux. Besides their well-characterized structured domains, most contain intrinsically disordered regions, whose biological roles remain poorly understood. Evidence suggests that the functions of intrinsically disordered regions are context-dependent, a trait particularly relevant when anchored to cellular membranes. In this study, we probed peptide arrays with fluorescent liposomes to generate a high-resolution, proteome-wide map of membrane-interaction sites within intrinsically disordered regions of human transmembrane proteins. Screening 4,000 proteins, we identified membrane-interaction sites in ∼60% of cases. Among these, ∼63% represent amphipathic helices, while ∼17% resemble cationic cell-penetrating peptides. We demonstrate that membrane-interaction motifs can influence subcellular localization and may contribute to both physiological and pathological processes. Our findings establish membrane association as a key functional aspect of intrinsically disordered regions and provide a valuable resource for discovering non-canonical regulatory mechanisms in transmembrane proteins. The resource is available at <ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://joscharombach.github.io/MemRIDR/">MemRIDRdb</ext-link>.