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Bacterial Sphingolipids and Sulfonolipids

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Biogenesis of Fatty Acids, Lipids and Membranes

Part of the book series: Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology ((HHLM))

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Abstract

The bacterial envelope is often composed by two membranes: the inner or cytoplasmic membrane and an outer membrane. The inner membrane consists of a lipid bilayer with phospholipids covering the inner and the outer leaflet. Although the outer membrane displays a bilayer structure as well, only the inner leaflet of the outer membrane is composed of phospholipids, whereas the outer leaflet is typically formed by lipid A-containing lipopolysaccharides in Gram-negative bacteria. However, some bacteria lack lipopolysaccharides and have sphingolipids in the outer leaflet of their outer membrane instead. Sphingolipids are considered to be typical eukaryotic membrane lipids, essential components of the plasma membrane, and are crucial for signaling and organization of lipid rafts in eukaryotes.

Although there is a considerable structural diversity within bacterial sphingolipids, very little is known about their biosynthesis, transport to the outer leaflet of the outer membrane, or their evolutionary history. Whereas bacterial sphingolipids seem to be important as an outermost protective layer in some bacteria, for the survival of symbiotic Bacteroides in humans, as virulence factors in some pathogenic bacteria, and maybe in fruiting body formation in myxobacteria, their biological functions are poorly understood on a molecular level.

Sulfonolipids are structural analogues of sphingolipids and seem to be important for gliding motility in Cytophaga species, but also as crucial bacterial factors that trigger multicellularity in choanoflagellates, the closest living relatives of animals.

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Acknowledgments

Research in our lab was supported by grants from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología-México (CONACyT-Mexico) (178,359 and 253,549 in Investigación Científica Básica as well as 118 in Investigación en Fronteras de la Ciencia) and from Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico-Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

(DGAPA-UNAM; PAPIIT IN202616, IN203612). We thank Lourdes Martínez-Aguilar for skillful technical assistance.

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  1. Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

    Otto Geiger, Jonathan Padilla-Gómez & Isabel M. López-Lara

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  1. Otto Geiger
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  2. Jonathan Padilla-Gómez
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  3. Isabel M. López-Lara
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Correspondence to Otto Geiger .

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    Otto Geiger

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Geiger, O., Padilla-Gómez, J., López-Lara, I.M. (2018). Bacterial Sphingolipids and Sulfonolipids. In: Geiger, O. (eds) Biogenesis of Fatty Acids, Lipids and Membranes. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43676-0_12-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43676-0_12-1

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