title: Miscibility behavior and nanostructure of monolayers of the main phospholipids of Escherichia coli inner membrane.
abstract: We report a thermodynamic study of the effect of calcium on the mixing properties at the air-water interface of two phospholipids that mimic the inner membrane of Escherichia coli: 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine and 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol. In this study, pure POPE and POPG monolayers and three mixed monolayers, χ(POPE) = 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75, were analyzed. We show that for χ(POPE) = 0.75, the values of the Gibbs energy of mixing were negative, which implies attractive interactions. We used atomic force microscopy to study the structural properties of Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers that were transferred onto mica substrate at lateral surface pressures of 25 and 30 mN m(-1). The topographic images of pure POPE and POPG monolayers exhibited two domains of differing size and morphology, showing a step height difference within the range expected for liquid-condensed and liquid-expanded phases. The images captured for χ(POPE) = 0.25 were featureless, and for χ(POPE) = 0.5 small microdomains were observed. The composition that mimics quantitatively the proportions found in the inner membrane of E. coli , χ(POPE) = 0.75, showed large liquid condensed domains in the liquid expanded phase. The extension of each domain was quantitatively analyzed. Because calcium is used in the formation of supported bilayers of negatively charged phospholipids, the possible influence of the nanostructure of the apical on the distal monolayer is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical-Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and IN2UB, University of Barcelona, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Picas
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Suárez-Germà
authors.forename: M Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Montero
authors.forename: Òscar
authors.initials: Ò
authors.lastname: Domènech
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hernández-Borrell
mesh_terms: D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry*; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D008563:Membrane Lipids; D010743:Phospholipids