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Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence

Lipid membranes are a key component of living systems and have been essential to the origin of life. One hypothesis for the origin of life assumes the existence of protomembranes with ancient lipids formed by Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. We determined the mesophase structure and fluidity of a prototyp...

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Autores principales: Misuraca, Loreto, Winter, Roland, Demé, Bruno, Oger, Philippe M., Peters, Judith
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10144571/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37103813
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040386
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author Misuraca, Loreto
Winter, Roland
Demé, Bruno
Oger, Philippe M.
Peters, Judith
author_facet Misuraca, Loreto
Winter, Roland
Demé, Bruno
Oger, Philippe M.
Peters, Judith
author_sort Misuraca, Loreto
collection PubMed
description Lipid membranes are a key component of living systems and have been essential to the origin of life. One hypothesis for the origin of life assumes the existence of protomembranes with ancient lipids formed by Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. We determined the mesophase structure and fluidity of a prototypical decanoic (capric) acid-based system, a fatty acid with a chain length of 10 carbons, and a lipid system consisting of a 1:1 mixture of capric acid with a fatty alcohol of equal chain length (C10 mix). To shed light on the mesophase behavior and fluidity of these prebiotic model membranes, we employed Laurdan fluorescence spectroscopy, which reports on the lipid packing and fluidity of membranes, supplemented by small-angle neutron diffraction data. The data are compared with data of the corresponding phospholipid bilayer systems of the same chain length, 1,2-didecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DLPC). We demonstrate that the prebiotic model membranes capric acid and the C10 mix show formation of stable vesicular structures needed for cellular compartmentalization at low temperatures only, typically below 20 °C. They reveal the fluid-like lipid dynamic properties needed for optimal physiological function. High temperatures lead to the destabilization of the lipid vesicles and the formation of micellar structures.
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spelling pubmed-101445712023-04-29 Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence Misuraca, Loreto Winter, Roland Demé, Bruno Oger, Philippe M. Peters, Judith Membranes (Basel) Article Lipid membranes are a key component of living systems and have been essential to the origin of life. One hypothesis for the origin of life assumes the existence of protomembranes with ancient lipids formed by Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. We determined the mesophase structure and fluidity of a prototypical decanoic (capric) acid-based system, a fatty acid with a chain length of 10 carbons, and a lipid system consisting of a 1:1 mixture of capric acid with a fatty alcohol of equal chain length (C10 mix). To shed light on the mesophase behavior and fluidity of these prebiotic model membranes, we employed Laurdan fluorescence spectroscopy, which reports on the lipid packing and fluidity of membranes, supplemented by small-angle neutron diffraction data. The data are compared with data of the corresponding phospholipid bilayer systems of the same chain length, 1,2-didecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DLPC). We demonstrate that the prebiotic model membranes capric acid and the C10 mix show formation of stable vesicular structures needed for cellular compartmentalization at low temperatures only, typically below 20 °C. They reveal the fluid-like lipid dynamic properties needed for optimal physiological function. High temperatures lead to the destabilization of the lipid vesicles and the formation of micellar structures. MDPI 2023-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC10144571/ /pubmed/37103813 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040386 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Misuraca, Loreto
Winter, Roland
Demé, Bruno
Oger, Philippe M.
Peters, Judith
Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence
title Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence
title_full Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence
title_fullStr Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence
title_full_unstemmed Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence
title_short Molecular Rearrangements in Protomembrane Models Probed by Laurdan Fluorescence
title_sort molecular rearrangements in protomembrane models probed by laurdan fluorescence
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10144571/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37103813
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040386
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