Live in extreme conditions requires not only a set of stable proteins but also other resistant molecular components like membranes. In a recent work appeared in ScientificReports (1), see here, computer simulations have been used to explore the properties of a archaeal-like membranes that are formed by lipids chemically different with respect to the ones forming membranes in example in Bacteria. Lipids used by an archeon have hydrophobic tails linked together so that the molecule looks like triphasic with the following sequence glycerol head/hydrophobic tails/glycerol head. As consequence the membrane is assembled as a monolayer of lipids and not as a bilayer. On top of this, the chemical nature of the hydrophobic tail can be different as well. The main point of the manuscript is that because of the linked structure of the hydrophobic tails the archaeal-membrane is more dense and less permeable. This feature could be used for the optimal design of nano-structures representing resistant support in biotechnology.
[1] A.O. Chugnov et al. Scientific Reports, 2014, 4, 7462.
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