Membrane lipids: where they are and how they behave

Throughout the biological world, a 30 Å hydrophobic film typically delimits the environments that serve as the margin between life and death for individual cells. Biochemical and biophysical findings have provided a detailed model of the composition and structure of membranes, which includes levels of dynamic organization both across the lipid bilayer (lipid asymmetry) and in the lateral dimension (lipid domains) of membranes. How do cells apply anabolic and catabolic enzymes, translocases and transporters, plus the intrinsic physical phase behaviour of lipids and their interactions with membrane proteins, to create the unique compositions and multiple functionalities of their individual membranes

Phase behavior and domain size in sphingomyelin-containing lipid bilayers

Membrane raft size measurements are crucial to understanding the stability and functionality of rafts in cells. The challenge of accurately measuring raft size is evidenced by the disparate reports of domain sizes, which range from nanometers to microns for the ternary model membrane system sphingomyelin (SM)/1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC)/cholesterol (Chol). Using F\uf6rster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), we established phase diagrams for porcine brain SM (bSM)/dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC)/Chol and bSM/POPC/Chol at 15 and 25 C. By combining two techniques with different spatial sensitivities, namely FRET and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), we have significantly narrowed the uncertainty in domain size estimates for bSM/POPC/Chol mixtures. Compositional trends in FRET data revealed coexisting domains at 15 and 25 C for both mixtures, while SANS measurements detected no domain formation for bSM/POPC/Chol. Together these results indicate that liquid domains in bSM/POPC/Chol are between 2 and 7 nm in radius at 25 C: that is, domains must be on the order of the 2-6 nm F\uf6rster distance of the FRET probes, but smaller than the ~ 7 nm minimum cluster size detectable with SANS. However, for palmitoyl SM (PSM)/POPC/Chol at a similar composition, SANS detected coexisting liquid domains. This increase in domain size upon replacing the natural SM component (which consists of a mixture of chain lengths) with synthetic PSM, suggests a role for SM chain length in modulating raft size in vivo. \ua9 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Bilayer thickness mismatch controls domain size in model membranes

The observation of lateral phase separation in lipid bilayers has received considerable attention, especially in connection to lipid raft phenomena in cells. It is widely accepted that rafts play a central role in cellular processes, notably signal transduction. While micrometer-sized domains are observed with some model membrane mixtures, rafts much smaller than 100 nm - beyond the reach of optical microscopy - are now thought to exist, both in vitro and in vivo. We have used small-angle neutron scattering, a probe free technique, to measure the size of nanoscopic membrane domains in unilamellar vesicles with unprecedented accuracy. These experiments were performed using a four-component model system containing fixed proportions of cholesterol and the saturated phospholipid 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC), mixed with varying amounts of the unsaturated phospholipids 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn- glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC). We find that liquid domain size increases with the extent of acyl chain unsaturation (DOPC:POPC ratio). Furthermore, we find a direct correlation between domain size and the mismatch in bilayer thickness of the coexisting liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases, suggesting a dominant role for line tension in controlling domain size. While this result is expected from line tension theories, we provide the first experimental verification in free-floating bilayers. Importantly, we also find that changes in bilayer thickness, which accompany changes in the degree of lipid chain unsaturation, are entirely confined to the disordered phase. Together, these results suggest how the size of functional domains in homeothermic cells may be regulated through changes in lipid composition. \ua9 2013 American Chemical Society.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Towards tailored communication networks in assemblies of artificial cells

Living Technology is researching novel IT making strong use of programmable chemical systems. These chemical systems shall finally converge to artificial cells resulting in evolvable complex information systems. We focus on procedural manageability and information processing capabilities of such information systems. Here, we present a novel resource-saving formation, processing, and examination procedure to generate and handle single compartments representing preliminary stages of artificial cells. Its potential is exemplified by testing the influence of different glycerophospholipids on the stability of the compartments. We discuss how the procedure could be used both in evolutionary optimization of self-assembling amphiphilic systems and in engineering tailored communication networks enabling life-like information processing in multicompartment aggregates of programmable composition and spatial configuration