Bacterial lipids drive compartmentalization on the nanoscale

The design of cellular functions in synthetic systems, inspired by the internal partitioning of living cells, is a constantly growing research field that is paving the way to a large number of new remarkable applications. Several hierarchies of internal compartments like polymersomes, liposomes, and membranes are used to control the transport, release, and chemistry of encapsulated species. However, the experimental characterization and the comprehension of glycolipid mesostructures are far from being fully addressed. Lipid A is indeed a glycolipid and the endotoxic part of Gram-negative bacterial lipopolysaccharide; it is the moiety that is recognized by the eukaryotic receptors giving rise to the modulation of innate immunity. Herein we propose, for the first time, a combined approach based on hybrid Particle-Field (hPF) Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) experiments to gain a molecular picture of the complex supramolecular structures of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipid A at low hydration levels. The mutual support of data from simulations and experiments allowed the unprecedented discovery of the presence of a nano-compartmentalized phase composed of liposomes of variable size and shape which can be used in synthetic biological applications.