The regulation of bacterial membrane fluidity by modification of phospholipid fatty acyl chain length

Abstract

Microorganisms are particularly useful for studying the control of membrane fluidity for two main reasons. Firstly, they respond readily to changes in their environment, and, secondly, it is relatively easy to isolate mutants, which may provide a great deal of information that it would be very difficult otherwise to obtain. Bacteria also have the advantage that usually they do not store fat, and with few exceptions do not synthesise polyunsaturated fatty acids. Consequently, growth temperature-dependent changes in fatty acid composition can be related more easily to membrane lipid function. The most commonly observed growth temperature-dependent alteration in lipid acyl composition is that of the degree of fatty acyl unsaturation. In addition, fatty acyl chain length may change, either independently or together with changes in unsaturation. In gram positive bacteria, which contain iso- and anteiso-branched chain fatty acids, as well as n-chain, odd-numbered fatty acids, the ratio of the branched chain isomers may change with growth temperature (e.g. in Bacilli, Kaneda, 1977).KeywordsAcyl ChainLipoic AcidFatty Acid SynthetaseAcyl Chain LengthFatty Acid ElongationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.