On Physical Properties of Tetraether Lipid Membranes: Effects of Cyclopentane Rings
Figure 1
Illustrations of the molecular structures of the bipolar tetraether lipids in the polar lipid fraction E (PLFE) isolated from S. acidocaldarius. PLFE contains (a) GDGT (or caldarchaeol) and (b) GDNT (or calditolglycerocaldarchaeol). The number of cyclopentane rings in each biphytanyl chain can vary from 0 to 4. The different head groups of GDNT and GDGT are presented at the bottom. GDG(N)T-0 and GDG(N)T-4 contain 0 and 4 cyclopentane rings per molecule, respectively (taken from [5], reproduced with permission).
