Archaeal organisms, one of the three domains of life, have evolved mechanically and chemically robust membrane compositions that allow survival in hostile living conditions (high temperatures, high osmotic pressure and low pH). The lipids of eukaryotes are structurally different from Archaea, with one major difference being the presence of tetraether membrane-spanning lipids in Archaeal membranes. However, the relationship between lipid structures and membrane integrity is poorly understood. To provide some insight into this question, we synthesized a set of bioinspired lipids to systematically test the effect of tethering on membrane leakage over a broad range of temperature. We will present results from leakage experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to help provide new insight into the relationship between temperature-dependent permeation and lipid structure. Our study shows that mimicking certain structural features of natural Archaea lipids results in an improvement of membrane thermostability, which may help overcome limitations of many current lipid-based technologies.

Tethering of lipids leads to increased resistance to membrane leakage at elevated temperature

251st National Meeting (2016)

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