How membrane chain-melting phase-transition temperature is affected by the lipid chain asymmetry and degree of unsaturation: an effective chain-length model

Abstract

Hydrocarbon effects on the lipid chain-melting phase-transition temperature are analyzed. The membrane fluidization temperature is shown to increase with the effective chain length, which is proportional to the thickness of the well-packed hydrocarbon region. The latter, as a rule, increases with the length of the longest ordered and aligned segment on each chain. This conclusion is independent of the cause for the reduced chain packing in membrane interior: chain unsaturation (which effectively decouples the two hydrocarbon segments disjoined by a double bond) or chain asymmetry (which causes the terminal hydrocarbon segments to lose close contact) both affect the bilayer chain-melting phase-transition temperature comparably on the effective chain-length scale. Thermodynamic consequences of the trans unsaturation are approximately 50% smaller than the effects of the double bonds in the cis conformation, owing to the smaller membrane perturbation by the former double bonds. A simple quantitative model is introduced for the analysis of the phospholipid chain-melting phase behavior. This new model permits quantitative predictions of the chain-melting transition temperature solely on the basis of the known lipid chemical composition. It also explains lipid sensitivity to the hydrocarbon type and attachment. The model agreement with the experimental data is usually better than to within 99% and thus comparable to experimental scatter, even when only a few or no adjustable parameters are used. The membrane fluidization temperature is calculated for a number of potentially interesting, also as yet unexplored, phospholipids, and the biological significance of the effective chain-length concept is discussed.