Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 2: Membranes and vesicles I (joint session BP/CPP)

BP 2.4: Vortrag

Montag, 1. April 2019, 10:15–10:30, H10

Glycolipids as zippers between phospholipid membranes — •Victoria Latza¹, Bruno Demé², and Emanuel Schneck¹ — ¹Max-Planck Institut für Kolloid und Grenzflächenforschung, Potsdam, Germany — ²Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France

Essential mechanisms in biological cells, such as molecular transport and cell division, involve the spatiotemporal reorganization of membranes in terms of membrane adhesion or vesicle release. These processes are largely determined by membrane-membrane interactions and thus highly sensitive to the membranes* surface chemistry. It is known that certain membrane-bound saccharide motifs, such as the LewisX trisaccharide, promote membrane adhesion. These cases, however, have been viewed as exceptions. Here, with the help of small-angle x-ray scattering, we investigate the interaction between membranes composed of ternary lipid mixtures of (i) uncharged phospholipids as matrix, (ii) negatively charged phospholipids to induce electrostatic repulsion, and (iii) glycolipids featuring various mono- and oligosaccharide headgroups. We find that a large fraction of saccharide types are able to induce membrane adhesion through the formation of weak inter-membrane bonds. These bonds are resistant to electrostatic repulsion at levels that lead to the complete unbinding of pure phospholipid membranes. Our results strongly indicate that glycolipid-induced membrane-binding is not an exceptional feature of few saccharide types but a highly abundant phenomenon of great relevance for membrane biophysics.