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The cell membrane of archaea consist mostly of ether phospholipids. These lipids have a flipped chirality compared to bacterial and eukaryotic membranes, a conundrum known as the " lipid divide ". The "tail" groups are also not simply n-alkyl groups, but highly methylated chains made up of saturated isoprenoid units (e.g. phytanyl ).
The three major classes of membrane lipids are phospholipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol. Lipids are amphiphilic: they have one end that is soluble in water ('polar') and an ending that is soluble in fat ('nonpolar'). By forming a double layer with the polar ends pointing outwards and the nonpolar ends pointing inwards membrane lipids can ...
Glycerol 1-phosphate is a starting material for de novo synthesis of ether lipids, such as those derived from archaeol and caldarchaeol. It is first geranylgeranylated on its sn -3 position by a cytosolic enzyme, phosphoglycerol geranylgeranyltransferase .
Phospholipids [1] are a class of lipids whose molecule has a hydrophilic "head" containing a phosphate group and two hydrophobic "tails" derived from fatty acids, joined by an alcohol residue (usually a glycerol molecule). Marine phospholipids typically have omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA integrated as part of the phospholipid molecule. [2]
Example of an ethanolamine plasmalogen with the characteristic vinyl ether linkage at the sn-1 position and an ester linkage at the sn-2 position. Plasmalogens are a class of glycerophospholipid with a plasmenyl group linked to a lipid at the sn-2 position of the glycerol backbone.
POPC (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) is a phosphatidylcholine.It is a diacylglycerol phospholipid.It is an important phospholipid for biophysical experiments and has been used to study various subjects such as lipid rafts.
The archaeal phospholipids are built on a backbone of sn-glycerol-1-phosphate, which is an enantiomer of sn-glycerol-3-phosphate, the phospholipid backbone found in bacteria and eukaryotes. This suggests that archaea use entirely different enzymes for synthesizing phospholipids as compared to bacteria and eukaryotes.
Other phospholipids. There are many other phospholipids, some of which are glycolipids. The glycolipids include phosphatidyl sugars where the alcohol functional group is part of a carbohydrate. Phosphatidyl sugars are present in plants and certain microorganisms. A carbohydrate is very hydrophilic due to the large number of hydroxyl groups present.