Modification of Lipid Composition and Membrane Fluidity in Tetrahymena

Abstract

It is now widely accepted that lipids play some important roles in a variety of functions taking place in the biological membrane. In order to shed light on the involvement of lipids in membrane functions, one useful approach has been to manipulate either quantitatively or qualitatively the membrane lipid composition of cells under the defined growth conditions, and to examine functions in the membranes with altered lipid composition. Although various methods for modifying membrane lipids have been available (Chapman and Quinn, 1976), one of the most commonly used methods is to supplement cells with different lipids or its precursors. The majority of studies of membrane lipid modification has largely involved alterations in the phospholipid acyl chain composition in bacteria and mycoplasma. Recently, such manipulation procedures have been applied to mammalian cells grown in tissue culture to alter not only fatty acid but also polar head group composition of membrane phospholipids.