Abstract
Nature was remarkably inventive in creating the variety of polar lipids which form the matrix of biological membranes. The rationale for the variability of membrane lipids is not clear, it might simply be that these amphiphilic structures have in common the capability to arrange as bilayers in an aqueous environment. However, lipids are not only the plaster which holds the membrane together; there is ample evidence that distinct phospholipid classes or species serve additional tasks which make them indispensable for the functioning of membrane-linked pocesses. For example, phosphatidylinositols are involved in signal transduction and are therefore essential for the viability of eukaryotic cells. Most likely adaptation of polar lipid structures to specific requirements has occurred during evolution. The cell envelope of thermoacidophilic archaebacteria consists of chemically stable tetraether glyceroglyco-(or phospho-) lipids19 that might be essential for these organisms to survive at the extremes of high temperature and low pH. The pulmonary surfactant coating the mammalian alveolus contains dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) as a major constituent. Together with other phospholipids and specific proteins DPPC reduces the surface tension at the air-liquid interface26. Reversible changes in the membrane phospholipid pattern in response to environmental stress, e.g., temperature or solvents, have repeatedly been observed (see respective chapters in ref.17).
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Paltauf, F., Hermetter, A. (1990). Phospholipids — Natural, Semisynthetic, Synthetic. In: Hanin, I., Pepeu, G. (eds) Phospholipids. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1364-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1364-0_1
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