Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 109, Issue 35, Pages 14236-14240Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1212141109
Keywords
lipid order; polycyclic isoprenoids; bacterial membrane organization; membrane phase evolution; organic geochemistry
Categories
Funding
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- National Science Foundation [1064754]
- German Research Foundation (DFG) [SI459/2-1]
- DFG [TRR83 TP02]
- European Science Foundation (ESF) [SI459/3-1]
- German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) [03FO1212]
- Klaus Tschira Foundation
- Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering
- Office Of The Director [1064754] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Liquid-ordered phases are one of two biochemically active membrane states, which until now were thought to be a unique consequence of the interactions between eukaryotic membrane lipids. The formation of a liquid-ordered phase depends crucially on the ordering properties of sterols. However, it is not known whether this capacity exists in organisms that lack sterols, such as bacteria. We show that diplopterol, the simplest bacterial hopanoid, has similar properties and that hopanoids are bacterial sterol surrogates with the ability to order saturated lipids and to form a liquid-ordered phase in model membranes. These observations suggest that the evolution of an ordered biochemically active liquid membrane could have evolved before the oxygenation of Earth's surface and the emergence of sterols.
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