Fungal Plasma Membrane Lipid Domains Alterations Upon Drug Exposure

Abstract

The biophysical properties of the plasma membrane of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa was characterized using fluorescence spectroscopy. We have taken advantage of a strategy relying on the combined use of different membrane probes and photophysical properties to monitor, in vivo, thebiophysical changes upon a drug challenge with staurosporine, a programmed cell death-inducing drug, in N. crassa asexual spores (conidia). An increase in the rigidity of highly ordered membrane domains was observed, possibly associated with the increment on the levels of sphingolipids with smaller headgroups, allowing a tighter packing of the lipid acyl chains.