Abstract
The myelin sheath is an insulating membrane layer surrounding myelinated axons in vertebrates, which is formed when the plasma membrane of an oligodendrocyte or a Schwann cell wraps itself around the axon. A large fraction of the total protein in this membrane layer is comprised of only a small number of individual proteins, which have certain intriguing structural properties. The myelin proteins are implicated in a number of neurological diseases, including, for example, autoimmune diseases and peripheral neuropathies. In this review, the structural properties of a number of myelin-specific proteins are described.