Lipid distribution around KCNQ1 in different systems. (A) An overview of the CG system offering both extracellular (left) and intracellular (right) views of the KCNQ1 channel embedded in the multicomponent membrane bilayer. The protein is displayed by the gray tube representation, and each lipid component is colored as detailed. (B) Contour maps of POPE (gray) and POPG (green), with threshold values at 26% (top row) and CHOL with a threshold value at 20% (bottom row) for the systems containing LIN or STE and the FA-free (FA-FREE) system. PIP₂ is not present in the outer leaflet and was therefore not included in this analysis. (C) Radial distribution function of LIN (blue) and STE (purple) head groups around the KCNQ1 channel during the last 45 µs of the simulation. The radial distribution function g(r) allows a look into the distribution of particles by describing how the density varies as a function of distance from a reference particle. We observed LIN head groups peaking at ∼15 Å and 30 Å from the center of the channel, with each peak corresponding to regions I and II. The LIN and STE head group peaks differ by a factor of two or three.