Characterization of Fatty Acids in Crenarchaeota by GC-MS and NMR

Figure 1

Structural representation of characteristic lipids used in archaeal and Prokaryotic/Eukaryota membranes. (a) Structure of a basic isoprenoid-based lipid used in archaeal membranes. (b) Canonical acyl chain-based lipid used in the formation of Prokaryotic/Eukaryota membranes. For each lipid, a head group consisting of any number of R groups connected to a glycerol molecule is depicted. Also attached to the glycerol head group are two hydrocarbon-based chains. The three major differences between the two types of lipids are in the chemical linkage to glycerol, the position on glycerol where the linkage takes place, and the type of hydrocarbon chain present. For archaeal lipids, five carbon isoprenoid units with a methyl group branched at every fourth carbon and are attached by ether linkages to glycerol at the 2 and 3 positions. For Prokaryotic/Eukaryota, hydrocarbon chains (m and n in (b)) vary in length from 12 to 26 and are linked by ester bonds at the 1 and 2 positions to glycerol and not typically branched.

(a)

(b)