title: Structural Significance of Lipid Diversity as Studied by Small Angle Neutron and X-ray Scattering.
abstract: We review recent developments in the rapidly growing field of membrane biophysics, with a focus on the structural properties of single lipid bilayers determined by different scattering techniques, namely neutron and X-ray scattering. The need for accurate lipid structural properties is emphasized by the sometimes conflicting results found in the literature, even in the case of the most studied lipid bilayers. Increasingly, accurate and detailed structural models require more experimental data, such as those from contrast varied neutron scattering and X-ray scattering experiments that are jointly refined with molecular dynamics simulations. This experimental and computational approach produces robust bilayer structural parameters that enable insights, for example, into the interplay between collective membrane properties and its components (e.g., hydrocarbon chain length and unsaturation, and lipid headgroup composition). From model studies such as these, one is better able to appreciate how a real biological membrane can be tuned by balancing the contributions from the lipid's different moieties (e.g., acyl chains, headgroups, backbones, etc.).
authors.affiliation: Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna-Moscow Region, Russia. kucerka@fpharm.uniba.sk.|Department of Physical Chemistry of Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, 832 32 Bratislava, Slovakia. kucerka@fpharm.uniba.sk.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kučerka
authors.affiliation: Biology & Soft Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. heberlefa@ornl.gov.|Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6453, USA. heberlefa@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: Frederick A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Heberle
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA. panj@usf.edu.
authors.forename: Jianjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Biology & Soft Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. katsarasj@ornl.gov.|Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6453, USA. katsarasj@ornl.gov.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1200, USA. katsarasj@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Katsaras
keywords: X-ray scattering; bilayer; lipid area; lipidome; neutron scattering; structure