Functional convergence of hopanoids and sterols in membrane ordering

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

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.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)14236-14240
Number of pages5
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America : PNAS
Volume109
Issue number35
Publication statusPublished - 28 Aug 2012
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMedCentral PMC3435179
Scopus 84865532003
ORCID /0000-0001-8901-4377/work/142232427

Keywords

Keywords

  • Bacteria/metabolism, Cell Membrane/chemistry, Cholesterol/chemistry, Evolution, Molecular, Lipid A/chemistry, Lipid Bilayers/chemistry, Liposomes/chemistry, Membrane Lipids/chemistry, Models, Chemical, Sphingomyelins/chemistry, Sterols/chemistry, Terpenes/chemistry, Triterpenes/chemistry