IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-14528-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regulation of lipid saturation without sensing membrane fluidity

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Ballweg

    (Saarland University
    Saarland University)

  • Erdinc Sezgin

    (University of Oxford)

  • Milka Doktorova

    (McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center)

  • Roberto Covino

    (Max Planck Institute of Biophysics)

  • John Reinhard

    (Saarland University
    Saarland University)

  • Dorith Wunnicke

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Inga Hänelt

    (Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Ilya Levental

    (McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center)

  • Gerhard Hummer

    (Max Planck Institute of Biophysics
    Goethe University Frankfurt)

  • Robert Ernst

    (Saarland University
    Saarland University)

Abstract

Cells maintain membrane fluidity by regulating lipid saturation, but the molecular mechanisms of this homeoviscous adaptation remain poorly understood. We have reconstituted the core machinery for regulating lipid saturation in baker’s yeast to study its molecular mechanism. By combining molecular dynamics simulations with experiments, we uncover a remarkable sensitivity of the transcriptional regulator Mga2 to the abundance, position, and configuration of double bonds in lipid acyl chains, and provide insights into the molecular rules of membrane adaptation. Our data challenge the prevailing hypothesis that membrane fluidity serves as the measured variable for regulating lipid saturation. Rather, we show that Mga2 senses the molecular lipid-packing density in a defined region of the membrane. Our findings suggest that membrane property sensors have evolved remarkable sensitivities to highly specific aspects of membrane structure and dynamics, thus paving the way toward the development of genetically encoded reporters for such properties in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Ballweg & Erdinc Sezgin & Milka Doktorova & Roberto Covino & John Reinhard & Dorith Wunnicke & Inga Hänelt & Ilya Levental & Gerhard Hummer & Robert Ernst, 2020. "Regulation of lipid saturation without sensing membrane fluidity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14528-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14528-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14528-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-14528-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Loles Hoogerland & Stefan Pieter Hendrik Berg & Yixing Suo & Yuta W. Moriuchi & Adja Zoumaro-Djayoon & Esther Geurken & Flora Yang & Frank Bruggeman & Michael D. Burkart & Gregory Bokinsky, 2024. "A temperature-sensitive metabolic valve and a transcriptional feedback loop drive rapid homeoviscous adaptation in Escherichia coli," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Lizhi Liu & Dingyi Pan & Sheng Chen & Maria-Viola Martikainen & Anna Kårlund & Jing Ke & Herkko Pulkkinen & Hanna Ruhanen & Marjut Roponen & Reijo Käkelä & Wujun Xu & Jie Wang & Vesa-Pekka Lehto, 2022. "Systematic design of cell membrane coating to improve tumor targeting of nanoparticles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14528-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.