Abstract
The surface behavior of six different ether lipids from archaebacteria, based on condensation of glycerol or more complex polyols with two isoprenoid alcohols at 20 or 40 carbon atoms, was investigated in monolayers at the air-water interface.
The compounds with no complex polar group (GD, GDGT, GDNT) form monolayers showing a reversible collapse at surface pressure as low as 22 dynes/cm. This collapse pressure decrease with temperature in such a way that the film tension remains constant. In condensed films, these molecules do not assume a completely upright position.
Lipids with complex polar ends (HL, GLB, PLII) form films more stable to compression. Forcearea characteristics and surface moment values of HL monolayers are similar to those of analogous ester lipids with fatty acid chains. Monolayers of the two bipolar lipids, GLB and PLII, at room temperature present a more condensed state, probably due to the lateral cohesion between long alkyl chains, but a lower collapse pressure.
For all bipolar lipids, the area expansion induced by temperature increase is larger than that of monopolar ones.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- GD:
-
Glycerol diether (2,3-di-O-phytanyl-sn-glycerol
- GDGT:
-
Glycerol-dialkyl-glycerol tetraether
- GDNT:
-
Glycerol-dialkyl-nonitol tetraether
- GLB:
-
Glycolipid B
- PLII:
-
Phospholipid II
- HL:
-
Total lipid extract from Halobacterium halobium
References
Adam NK, Jessop G (1926) The structure of thin films. Part IX. Dibasic substances. Proc R Soc Lond A 112:376–380
Blocher D, Gutermann R, Henkel B, Ring K (1984) Differential scanning calorimetry studies on glycoplipids and glycophospholipids. Biochim Biophys Acta 778:74–80
Davies JT (1948) Monolayers of some diesters. Trans Faraday Soc 44:909–913
Davies JT, Rideal EK (1963) Interfacial phenomena. Academic Press, New York
De Rosa M, Gambacorta A, Millonig G, Bu'Lock JD (1974) Convergent characters of extremely thermophilic acidophilic bacteria. Experientia 30:866–868
De Rosa M, Gambacorta A, Bu'Lock JD (1975) Extremely thermophilic acidophilic bacteria convergent with Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. J Gen Microbiol 86:156–164
De Rosa M, De Rosa S, Gambacorta A, Minale L, Bu'Lock JD (1977) Chemical structure of the ether lipids of thermophilic acidophilic bacteria of the Caldariella group. Phytochemistry 16:1961–1965
De Rosa M, Gambacorta A, Nicolaus B, Bu'Lock JD (1980a) Complex lipids of Caldariella acidophila, a thermoacidophilic bacterium. Phytochemistry 19:821–825
De Rosa M, Esposito E, Gambacorta A, Nicolaus B, Bu'Lock JD (1980b) Effects of temperature of ether lipid composition of Caldariella acidophila. Phytochemistry 19:827–831
De Rosa M, Gambacorta A, Nicolaus B, Chappe B, Albrecht P, (1983) Isoprenoid ethers: Backbone of complex lipids of the archebacterium Sulfolobus solfataricus. Biochim Biophys Acta 753:249–256
Fromherz P (1975) Instrumentation for handling monomolecular films at air-water interface. Rev Sci Instrum 46: 1380–1385
Gaines GL (1966) Insoluble monolayers at liquid-gas interfaces. Interscience Publishers, New York
Gliozzi A, Rolandi R, De Rosa M, Gambacorta A (1982) Artificial black membranes from bipolar lipids of thermophilic archaebacteria. Biophys J 37:563–566
Gliozzi a, Rolandi R, De Rosa M, Gambacorta A (1983a) Monolayer black membranes from bipolar lipids of archaebacteria and their temperature induced structural changes. J Membr Biol 75:45–56
Gliozzi A, Paoli G, De Rosa M, Gambacorta A (1983b) Modulation of transition temperature of lipids in thermophilic archaebacteria. Effect of isoprenoid cyclization. Biochim Biophys Acta 735:234–242
Gulik A, Luzati V, De Rosa M, Gambacorta A (1985) Structure and polymorphism of bipolar isopranil lipids from archaebacteria. J Mol Biol 182:131–149
Gupta R, Woese CR (1980) Unusual modification patterns in the transfer ribonucleic acid of archaebacteria. Current Microbiol 4:245–249
Kandler O, Konig H (1978) Chemical composition of the peptidoglycan-free cell walls of methanogenic, bacteria. Arch Microbiol 118:141–152
Kates M, Kushwaha SC (1978) Biomhemistry of the lipids of extremely Halophilic bacteria. In: Caplan SR, Ginzburg, M (eds) Energetics and structure of halophilic microorganism. Elsevier, North Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, pp 461–479
Langworthy TA (1978) Membranes and lipids of extremely thermoacidophilic microorganism. In: Friedman SM (ed) Biochemistry of thermophily. Academic Press, New York, pp 11–30
Langworthy TA, Tornabene TG, Holzer G (1982) Lipids of archaebacteria. Zbl Bakt Hyg I. Abt Orig C 2:228–244
Lelkes PI, Goldenberg D, Gliozzi A, De Rosa M, Gambacorta A, Miller IR (1983) Vesicles from mixtures of bipolar archaebacterial lipids with egg phosphatidylcholine. Biochim Biophys Acta 732:714–718
Luehrsen KR, Nicholson DE, Eubanks DC, Fox GE (1981) An archaebacterial 5SrRNA contains a long insertion sequence. Nature (London). 293:755–756
Maggio B, Cumar FA, Caputto R (1978) surface behaviour of gangliosides and related glycosphigolipids. Biochem J 171: 559–565
Shah DO (1972) Monolayers of lipids in relation to membranes. Prog in Surf Sci 3:221–278
Tornabene TG, Langworthy TA (1979) Diphytanyl and diphytanyl glycerol ether lipids of methanogenic archaebacteria. Science 203:51–53
Tu J, Prongishvilli D, Huber H, Wildgruber G, Zillig W, Stetter KO (1982) Taxonomic relation between archaebacteria including 6 novel genera examined by cross hybridizations of DNAs and 16s tRNAs. J Mol Evol 18:109–114
Van Deenen LLM, Houstmuller UMT, De Haas GH, Mulder E (1962) Monomolecular layers of synthetic phosphatides. J Pharmacol 14:429–444
Woese CR (1981) Archaebacteria. Sci Am 244:94–107
Woese CR, Fox GE (1977) Phylogenetic structure of the Prokaryotic Domain: The Primary Kingdoms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74:5088–5090
Woese CR, Magrum LJ, Fox GE (1978) Archaebacteria. J Mol Evol 11:245–252
Zillig W, Schnabel R, Tu J, Stetter KO (1982) The phylogeny of archaebacteria, including novel anaerobic thermoacidophiles in the light of RNA polymerase structure. Naturwissenschaften 69:197–207
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rolandi, R., Schindler, H., De Rosa, M. et al. Monolayers of ether lipids from archaebacteria. Eur Biophys J 14, 19–27 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00260399
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00260399