Archaeal phospholipids

Furthermore, the head-groups of archaeal phospholipids are much too complex to be archaic, and I have postulated that polyprenyl phosphates might have been the most primitive membrane constituents. These phosphates can be biosynthesized by quite simple reactions, which, as we have shown, can be simulated in vitro from their C5 precursors (Desaubry et al., 2003). 

Concerning archaeal lipids, we recognize four structural characteristics that are distinct from their counterparts in Bacteria and Eukaryotes. First, the most important difference is that the stereochemical structure of the glycerol-phosphate backbone of the Archaeal phospholipids is glycerol-1-phosphate. Glycerol-1-phosphate is the enantiomer of the of the glycerol-3-phosphate backbone of bacterial and eukaryotic phospholipids (Pereto et al. 2004). 

Arahidopsis thaliana 86 arabinose 680 archaeal phospholipids 513 aroma compounds 414 artemisinin 67 5 Arxula adenivorans 678 astaxanthin 616 ATP-citrate lyase (ACL) 679 autonomously replicating sequences (ARS) 696... 

Dannenmuller, Olivier, Membrane Properties of Archaeal Phospholipids Effects of Macrocyclization, 6, 385. 

FIG. 14 Schematic illustration of an archaeal cell envelope structure (a) composed of the cytoplasmic membrane with associated and integral membrane proteins and an S-layer lattice, integrated into the cytoplasmic membrane, (b) Using this supramolecular construction principle, biomimetic membranes can be generated. The cytoplasmic membrane is replaced by a phospholipid or tetraether hpid monolayer, and bacterial S-layer proteins are crystallized to form a coherent lattice on the lipid film. Subsequently, integral model membrane proteins can be reconstituted in the composite S-layer-supported lipid membrane. (Modified from Ref. 124.)... 

Are the n-acyl phospholipids of classical membranes, or the more recently discovered archaeal lipids, plausible constituents of primitive membranes ... 

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