title: Membrane lipid unsaturation as physiological adaptation to animal longevity.
abstract: The appearance of oxygen in the terrestrial atmosphere represented an important selective pressure for ancestral living organisms and contributed toward setting up the pace of evolutionary changes in structural and functional systems. The evolution of using oxygen for efficient energy production served as a driving force for the evolution of complex organisms. The redox reactions associated with its use were, however, responsible for the production of reactive species (derived from oxygen and lipids) with damaging effects due to oxidative chemical modifications of essential cellular components. Consequently, aerobic life required the emergence and selection of antioxidant defense systems. As a result, a high diversity in molecular and structural antioxidant defenses evolved. In the following paragraphs, we analyze the adaptation of biological membranes as a dynamic structural defense against reactive species evolved by animals. In particular, our goal is to describe the physiological mechanisms underlying the structural adaptation of cellular membranes to oxidative stress and to explain the meaning of this adaptive mechanism, and to review the state of the art about the link between membrane composition and longevity of animal species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Lleida-Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (UdL-IRBLleida) Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Alba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naudí
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Lleida-Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (UdL-IRBLleida) Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Mariona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jové
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Lleida-Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (UdL-IRBLleida) Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Victòria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ayala
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Lleida-Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (UdL-IRBLleida) Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Portero-Otín
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Physiology II, Complutense University Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barja
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Lleida-Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (UdL-IRBLleida) Lleida, Spain.
authors.forename: Reinald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pamplona
keywords: fatty acid biosynthesis; membrane unsaturation; oxidative damage; peroxidizability index; phylogenomic analysis; rate of aging; reactive carbonyl species