Inter-lamellar attachments

There are interesting recent reports linking membrane fusion to cubic lipid phases [9] or to reversed (or "inverted") phases [62]. So-called "inter-lamellar attachments", formed between the bilayers of liposomes on fusion, show freeze-fracture electron micrograph textures identical to those of a cubic lipid-water phase (see Fig. 5.9). The inter-lamellar attachments seem to be identical to "lipidic particles" described earlier [63]. It is also interesting to note that diacylglycerols, secondary messengers from the Pl-cycle, produce fusion in... 

Plants were probably the first to have polyester outerwear, as the aerial parts of higher plants are covered with a cuticle whose structural component is a polyester called cutin. Even plants that live under water in the oceans, such as Zoestra marina, are covered with cutin. This lipid-derived polyester covering is unique to plants, as animals use carbohydrate or protein polymers as their outer covering. Cutin, the insoluble cuticular polymer of plants, is composed of inter-esterified hydroxy and hydroxy epoxy fatty acids derived from the common cellular fatty acids and is attached to the outer epidermal layer of cells by a pectinaceous layer (Fig. 1). The insoluble polymer is embedded in a complex mixture of soluble lipids collectively called waxes [1], Electron microscopic examination of the cuticle usually shows an amorphous appearance but in some plants the cuticle has a lamellar appearance (Fig. 2). 

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