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Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group

Cell membranes are a key element of life because they keep the genetic material and metabolic machinery together. All present cell membranes are made of phospholipids, yet the nature of the first membranes and the origin of phospholipids are still under debate. We report here the presence of ethanol...

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Autores principales: Rivilla, Víctor M., Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun, Martín-Pintado, Jesús, Briones, Carlos, Rodríguez-Almeida, Lucas F., Rico-Villas, Fernando, Tercero, Belén, Zeng, Shaoshan, Colzi, Laura, de Vicente, Pablo, Martín, Sergio, Requena-Torres, Miguel A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8179234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34031247
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101314118
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author Rivilla, Víctor M.
Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun
Martín-Pintado, Jesús
Briones, Carlos
Rodríguez-Almeida, Lucas F.
Rico-Villas, Fernando
Tercero, Belén
Zeng, Shaoshan
Colzi, Laura
de Vicente, Pablo
Martín, Sergio
Requena-Torres, Miguel A.
author_facet Rivilla, Víctor M.
Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun
Martín-Pintado, Jesús
Briones, Carlos
Rodríguez-Almeida, Lucas F.
Rico-Villas, Fernando
Tercero, Belén
Zeng, Shaoshan
Colzi, Laura
de Vicente, Pablo
Martín, Sergio
Requena-Torres, Miguel A.
author_sort Rivilla, Víctor M.
collection PubMed
description Cell membranes are a key element of life because they keep the genetic material and metabolic machinery together. All present cell membranes are made of phospholipids, yet the nature of the first membranes and the origin of phospholipids are still under debate. We report here the presence of ethanolamine in space, [Formula: see text] OH, which forms the hydrophilic head of the simplest and second-most-abundant phospholipid in membranes. The molecular column density of ethanolamine in interstellar space is [Formula: see text] = (1.51 [Formula: see text] 0.07) [Formula: see text] , implying a molecular abundance with respect to [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]. Previous studies reported its presence in meteoritic material, but they suggested that it is synthesized in the meteorite itself by decomposition of amino acids. However, we find that the proportion of the molecule with respect to water in the interstellar medium is similar to the one found in the meteorite ([Formula: see text]). These results indicate that ethanolamine forms efficiently in space and, if delivered onto early Earth, could have contributed to the assembling and early evolution of primitive membranes.
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spelling pubmed-81792342021-06-16 Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group Rivilla, Víctor M. Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun Martín-Pintado, Jesús Briones, Carlos Rodríguez-Almeida, Lucas F. Rico-Villas, Fernando Tercero, Belén Zeng, Shaoshan Colzi, Laura de Vicente, Pablo Martín, Sergio Requena-Torres, Miguel A. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Cell membranes are a key element of life because they keep the genetic material and metabolic machinery together. All present cell membranes are made of phospholipids, yet the nature of the first membranes and the origin of phospholipids are still under debate. We report here the presence of ethanolamine in space, [Formula: see text] OH, which forms the hydrophilic head of the simplest and second-most-abundant phospholipid in membranes. The molecular column density of ethanolamine in interstellar space is [Formula: see text] = (1.51 [Formula: see text] 0.07) [Formula: see text] , implying a molecular abundance with respect to [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text]. Previous studies reported its presence in meteoritic material, but they suggested that it is synthesized in the meteorite itself by decomposition of amino acids. However, we find that the proportion of the molecule with respect to water in the interstellar medium is similar to the one found in the meteorite ([Formula: see text]). These results indicate that ethanolamine forms efficiently in space and, if delivered onto early Earth, could have contributed to the assembling and early evolution of primitive membranes. National Academy of Sciences 2021-06-01 2021-05-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8179234/ /pubmed/34031247 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101314118 Text en Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Rivilla, Víctor M.
Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun
Martín-Pintado, Jesús
Briones, Carlos
Rodríguez-Almeida, Lucas F.
Rico-Villas, Fernando
Tercero, Belén
Zeng, Shaoshan
Colzi, Laura
de Vicente, Pablo
Martín, Sergio
Requena-Torres, Miguel A.
Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
title Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
title_full Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
title_fullStr Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
title_full_unstemmed Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
title_short Discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
title_sort discovery in space of ethanolamine, the simplest phospholipid head group
topic Physical Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8179234/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34031247
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101314118
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