Chemical Stress and the Cell Envelope: The Phospholipid Fraction

Abstract

Evidence from physical studies of lipids in the last decade suggests more clearly than ever before, that the phospholipid fraction of cell membranes is not an inert participant in the cell, but a sensitive, dynamic system. The simplest living examples of this are prokaryotic micro-organisms such as E. coli. In this project, we explore the effect of growing E. coli in the presence of chemical stress (e.g.n-butanol) using updated lipidomics techniques (TLC, MS and NMR) and several biophysical techniques (broad-line 31P NMR and differential scanning calorimetry). n-Butanol is an important product of industrial micro-organismal growth, with economically widespread uses, such as an alternative to petrol.The combination of different experimental approaches in a chemical-biology-type strategy is designed to deliver a more fundamental understanding concerning the physical role of lipids in prokaryotes with state-of-the art accuracy. This in turn allows us to generate understanding about the effect of chemical stress agents, such as n-butanol, on the cell envelope.