Introduction - This is the electron crystal structure of bacteriorhodopsin from H. halobium. The script shows the structure of the bacteriorhodopsin in a bilayer. Scroll down until the text corresponding to the view is visible. (Based on 2bdr.pdb, N.Grigorieff et al. J. Mol. Biol. 259 393 (1996)).
Here is bacteriorhodopsin (GREEN) complexed to several lipid molecules (cpk).
Here is one transmembrane helix. The backbone is WHITE, the polar groups are YELLOW and the hydrophobic groups are RED
Here are two phospholipid molecules bound to the transmembrane helix. Note that the hydrophobic side chains interact with the fatty acid chains.
Here is another view of bacteriorhodopsin complexed to phospholipids.
Notice in this cut away that hydrophobic amino acid side chains interact with the fatty acid chains.