scholarly journals Faculty Opinions recommendation of Rab35 controls cilium length, function and membrane composition.

Author(s):  
Christoper J Westlake
EMBO Reports ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Kuhns ◽  
Cecília Seixas ◽  
Sara Pestana ◽  
Bárbara Tavares ◽  
Renata Nogueira ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Bernhard M¨uhlherr ◽  
Holger P. Petersson ◽  
Richard M. Weiss

This chapter considers the notion of parallel residues in a building. It begins with the assumption that Δ‎ is a building of type Π‎, which is arbitrary except in a few places where it is explicitly assumed to be spherical. Δ‎ is not assumed to be thick. The chapter then elaborates on a hypothesis which states that S is the vertex set of Π‎, (W, S) is the corresponding Coxeter system, d is the W-distance function on the set of ordered pairs of chambers of Δ‎, and ℓ is the length function on (W, S). It also presents a notation in which the type of a residue R is denoted by Typ(R) and concludes with the condition that residues R and T of a building will be called parallel if R = projR(T) and T = projT(R).


Author(s):  
Alexander Flegler ◽  
Vanessa Kombeitz ◽  
André Lipski

AbstractListeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen with the ability to grow at low temperatures down to − 0.4 °C. Maintaining cytoplasmic membrane fluidity by changing the lipid membrane composition is important during growth at low temperatures. In Listeria monocytogenes, the dominant adaptation effect is the fluidization of the membrane by shortening of fatty acid chain length. In some strains, however, an additional response is the increase in menaquinone content during growth at low temperatures. The increase of this neutral lipid leads to fluidization of the membrane and thus represents a mechanism that is complementary to the fatty acid-mediated modification of membrane fluidity. This study demonstrated that the reduction of menaquinone content for Listeria monocytogenes strains resulted in significantly lower resistance to temperature stress and lower growth rates compared to unaffected control cultures after growth at 6 °C. Menaquinone content was reduced by supplementation with aromatic amino acids, which led to a feedback inhibition of the menaquinone synthesis. Menaquinone-reduced Listeria monocytogenes strains showed reduced bacterial cell fitness. This confirmed the adaptive function of menaquinones for growth at low temperatures of this pathogen.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Pagnout ◽  
Angelina Razafitianamaharavo ◽  
Bénédicte Sohm ◽  
Céline Caillet ◽  
Audrey Beaussart ◽  
...  

AbstractToxicity mechanisms of metal oxide nanoparticles towards bacteria and underlying roles of membrane composition are still debated. Herein, the response of lipopolysaccharide-truncated Escherichia coli K12 mutants to TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2NPs, exposure in dark) is addressed at the molecular, single cell, and population levels by transcriptomics, fluorescence assays, cell nanomechanics and electrohydrodynamics. We show that outer core-free lipopolysaccharides featuring intact inner core increase cell sensitivity to TiO2NPs. TiO2NPs operate as membrane strippers, which induce osmotic stress, inactivate cell osmoregulation and initiate lipid peroxidation, which ultimately leads to genesis of membrane vesicles. In itself, truncation of lipopolysaccharide inner core triggers membrane permeabilization/depolarization, lipid peroxidation and hypervesiculation. In turn, it favors the regulation of TiO2NP-mediated changes in cell Turgor stress and leads to efficient vesicle-facilitated release of damaged membrane components. Remarkably, vesicles further act as electrostatic baits for TiO2NPs, thereby mitigating TiO2NPs toxicity. Altogether, we highlight antagonistic lipopolysaccharide-dependent bacterial responses to nanoparticles and we show that the destabilized membrane can generate unexpected resistance phenotype.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1441
Author(s):  
Moritz P. K. Frewein ◽  
Milka Doktorova ◽  
Frederick A. Heberle ◽  
Haden L. Scott ◽  
Enrico F. Semeraro ◽  
...  

We addressed the frequent occurrence of mixed-chain lipids in biological membranes and their impact on membrane structure by studying several chain-asymmetric phosphatidylcholines and the highly asymmetric milk sphingomyelin. Specifically, we report trans-membrane structures of the corresponding fluid lamellar phases using small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, which were jointly analyzed in terms of a membrane composition-specific model, including a headgroup hydration shell. Focusing on terminal methyl groups at the bilayer center, we found a linear relation between hydrocarbon chain length mismatch and the methyl-overlap for phosphatidylcholines, and a non-negligible impact of the glycerol backbone-tilting, letting the sn1-chain penetrate deeper into the opposing leaflet by half a CH2 group. That is, penetration-depth differences due to the ester-linked hydrocarbons at the glycerol backbone, previously reported for gel phase structures, also extend to the more relevant physiological fluid phase, but are significantly reduced. Moreover, milk sphingomyelin was found to follow the same linear relationship suggesting a similar tilt of the sphingosine backbone. Complementarily performed molecular dynamics simulations revealed that there is always a part of the lipid tails bending back, even if there is a high interdigitation with the opposing chains. The extent of this back-bending was similar to that in chain symmetric bilayers. For both cases of adaptation to chain length mismatch, chain-asymmetry has a large impact on hydrocarbon chain ordering, inducing disorder in the longer of the two hydrocarbons.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 634
Author(s):  
Ylenia Miele ◽  
Gábor Holló ◽  
István Lagzi ◽  
Federico Rossi

The budding and division of artificial cells engineered from vesicles and droplets have gained much attention in the past few decades due to an increased interest in designing stimuli-responsive synthetic systems. Proper control of the division process is one of the main challenges in the field of synthetic biology and, especially in the context of the origin of life studies, it would be helpful to look for the simplest chemical and physical processes likely at play in prebiotic conditions. Here we show that pH-sensitive giant unilamellar vesicles composed of mixed phospholipid/fatty acid membranes undergo a budding process, internally fuelled by the urea–urease enzymatic reaction, only for a given range of the membrane composition. A gentle interplay between the effects of the membrane composition on the elasticity and the preferred area difference of the bilayer is responsible for the existence of a narrow range of membrane composition yielding a high probability for budding of the vesicles.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur’ Adilah Abdul Nasir ◽  
Ameen Gabr Ahmed Alshaghdari ◽  
Mohd Usman Mohd Junaidi ◽  
Nur Awanis Hashim ◽  
Mohamad Fairus Rabuni ◽  
...  

Abstract Efficient purification technology is crucial to fully utilize hydrogen (H2) as the next generation fuel source. Polyimide (PI) membranes have been intensively applied for H2 purification but its current separation performance of neat PI membranes is insufficient to fulfill industrial demand. This study employs blending and crosslinking modification simultaneously to enhance the separation efficiency of a membrane. Polyethersulfone (PES) and Co-PI (P84) blend asymmetric membranes have been prepared via dry–wet phase inversion with three different ratios. Pure H2 and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas permeation are conducted on the polymer blends to find the best formulation for membrane composition for effective H2 purification. Next, the membrane with the best blending ratio is chemically modified using 1,3-diaminopropane (PDA) with variable reaction time. Physical and chemical characterization of all membranes was evaluated using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Upon 15 min modification, the polymer membrane achieved an improvement on H2/CO2 selectivity by 88.9%. Moreover, similar membrane has demonstrated the best performance as it has surpassed Robeson’s upper bound curve for H2/CO2 gas pair performance. Therefore, this finding is significant towards the development of H2-selective membranes with improved performance.


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