Summary
Carotenoids bearing two highly polar groupings distally placed can be incorporated into phospholipid membranes. This incorporation is structure-selective: the highest incorporation ratios are obtained when there is a good fit between the length of the hydrophobic chains and the thickness of the lipid bilayer, and/or when the carotenoid (the acyclic bacterioruberin) is associated with branched-chain lipids. The carotenoid chain is oriented across the membrane, like a rivet, as shown by its spectral properties. It reinforces mechanically the bilayer, much like cholesterol for Eukaryotic membranes. This functional equivalence is confirmed by in vivo data on mycoplasms.
Sterols for Eukaryotes, biohopanoids for many Bacteria, carotenoids for others, di- and tetraterpenic ethers for Archaebacteria, cycloartenol for some Protista, and other “orphan” lipids revealed by their molecular fossils, form a phylogenetic series permitting the prediction of more archaic polyterpenic equivalents.
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© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
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Ourisson, G., Nakatani, Y. (1989). Bacterial Carotenoids as Membrane Reinforcers: A General Role for Polyterpenoids: Membrane Stabilization. In: Krinsky, N.I., Mathews-Roth, M.M., Taylor, R.F. (eds) Carotenoids. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0849-2_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0849-2_16
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