Effects of Lipid Tethering in Extremophile-Inspired Membranes on H(+)/OH(-) Flux at Room Temperature

Antivesiculation and Complete Unbinding of Tail-Tethered Lipids

We report the effect of tail-tethering on vesiculation and complete unbinding of bilayered membranes. Amphiphilic molecules of a bolalipid, resembling the tail-tethered molecular structure of archaeal lipids, with two identical zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine headgroups self-assemble into a large flat lamellar membrane, in contrast to the multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) observed in its counterpart, monopolar nontethered zwitterionic lipids. The antivesiculation is confirmed by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cyro-TEM). With the net charge of zero and higher bending rigidity of the membrane (confirmed by neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy), the current membrane theory would predict that membranes should stack with each other (aka "bind") due to dominant van der Waals attraction, while the outcome of the nonstacking ("unbinding") membrane suggests that the theory needs to include entropic contribution for the nonvesicular structures. This report pioneers an understanding of how the tail-tethering of amphiphiles affects the structure, enabling better control over the final nanoscale morphology.

Configurational Entropy-Enabled Thermostability of Cell Membranes in Extremophiles: From Molecular Mechanism to Bioinspired Design

Understanding physicochemical interactions and mechanisms related to the cell membranes of lives under extreme conditions is of essential importance but remains scarcely explored. Here, using a combination of computer simulations and experiments, we demonstrate that the structural integrity and controllable permeability of cell membranes at high temperatures are predominantly directed by configurational entropy emerging from distorted intermolecular organization of bipolar tethered lipids peculiar to the extremophiles. Detailed simulations across multiple scales─from an all-atom exploration of molecular mechanism to a mesoscale examination of its universal nature─suggest that this configurational entropy effect can be generalized to diverse systems, such as block copolymers. This offers biomimetic inspiration for designing heat-tolerant materials based on entropy, as validated by our experiments of synthetic polymers. The findings provide new insight into the basic nature of the mechanism underlying the adaptation of organisms to extreme conditions and might open paths for designed materials inspired by entropic effects in biological systems.

Membrane properties of amacrocyclic tetraether bisphosphatidylcholine lipid: Effect of a single membrane-spanning polymethylene cross-linkage between two head groups of ditetradecylphosphatidylcholine membrane

The plasma membranes of archaea are abundant in macrocyclic tetraether lipids that contain a single or double long transmembrane hydrocarbon chains connecting the two glycerol backbones at both ends. In this study, a novel amacrocyclic bisphosphatidylcholine lipid bearing a single membrane-spanning octacosamethylene chain, 1,1'-O-octacosamethylene-2,2'-di-O-tetradecyl-bis-(sn-glycero)-3,3'-diphosphocholine (AC-(di-O-C14PC)₂), was synthesized to elucidate effects of the interlayer cross-linkage on membrane properties based on comparison with its corresponding diether phosphatidylcholine, 1,2-di-O-tetradecyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DTPC), that forms bilayer membrane. Several physicochemical techniques demonstrated that while AC-(di-O-C14PC)₂ monolayer, which adopts a particularly high-ordered structure in the gel phase, shows remarkably high thermotropic transition temperature compared to DTPC bilayer, the fluidity of both phospholipids above the transition temperature is comparable. Nonetheless, the fluorescent dye leakage from inside the AC-(di-O-C14PC)₂ vesicles in the fluid phase is highly suppressed. The origin of the membrane properties characteristic of AC-(di-O-C14PC)₂ monolayer is discussed in terms of the single long transmembrane hydrophobic linkage and the diffusional motion of the lipid molecules.

Fluid surface coatings for solid-state nanopores: comparison of phospholipid bilayers and archaea-inspired lipid monolayers

In the context of sensing and characterizing single proteins with synthetic nanopores, lipid bilayer coatings provide at least four benefits: first, they minimize unwanted protein adhesion to the pore walls by exposing a zwitterionic, fluid surface. Second, they can slow down protein translocation and rotation by the opportunity to tether proteins with a lipid anchor to the fluid bilayer coating. Third, they provide the possibility to impart analyte specificity by including lipid anchors with a specific receptor or ligand in the coating. Fourth, they offer a method for tuning nanopore diameters by choice of the length of the lipid's acyl chains. The work presented here compares four properties of various lipid compositions with regard to their suitability as nanopore coatings for protein sensing experiments: (1) electrical noise during current recordings through solid-state nanopores before and after lipid coating, (2) long-term stability of the recorded current baseline and, by inference, of the coating, (3) viscosity of the coating as quantified by the lateral diffusion coefficient of lipids in the coating, and (4) the success rate of generating a suitable coating for quantitative nanopore-based resistive pulse recordings. We surveyed lipid coatings prepared from bolaamphiphilic, monolayer-forming lipids inspired by extremophile archaea and compared them to typical bilayer-forming phosphatidylcholine lipids containing various fractions of curvature-inducing lipids or cholesterol. We found that coatings from archaea-inspired lipids provide several advantages compared to conventional phospholipids; the stable, low noise baseline qualities and high viscosity make these membranes especially suitable for analysis that estimates physical protein parameters such as the net charge of proteins as they enable translocation events with sufficiently long duration to time-resolve dwell time distributions completely. The work presented here reveals that the ease or difficulty of coating a nanopore with lipid membranes did not depend significantly on the composition of the lipid mixture, but rather on the geometry and surface chemistry of the nanopore in the solid state substrate. In particular, annealing substrates containing the nanopore increased the success rate of generating stable lipid coatings.

Entropic effects enable life at extreme temperatures

Maintaining membrane integrity is a challenge at extreme temperatures. Biochemical synthesis of membrane-spanning lipids is one adaptation that organisms such as thermophilic archaea have evolved to meet this challenge and preserve vital cellular function at high temperatures. The molecular-level details of how these tethered lipids affect membrane dynamics and function, however, remain unclear. Using synthetic monolayer-forming lipids with transmembrane tethers, here, we reveal that lipid tethering makes membrane permeation an entropically controlled process that helps to limit membrane leakage at elevated temperatures relative to bilayer-forming lipid membranes. All-atom molecular dynamics simulations support a view that permeation through membranes made of tethered lipids reduces the torsional entropy of the lipids and leads to tighter lipid packing, providing a molecular interpretation for the increased transition-state entropy of leakage.