A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life
Abstract All cells are encapsulated by a lipid membrane that facilitates their interactions with the environment. How cells manage diverse mixtures of lipids, which dictate membrane property and function, is experimentally challenging to address. Here, we present an approach to tune and minimize mem...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53975-y |
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| _version_ | 1850061915084029952 |
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| author | Isaac Justice Petra Kiesel Nataliya Safronova Alexander von Appen James P. Saenz |
| author_facet | Isaac Justice Petra Kiesel Nataliya Safronova Alexander von Appen James P. Saenz |
| author_sort | Isaac Justice |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract All cells are encapsulated by a lipid membrane that facilitates their interactions with the environment. How cells manage diverse mixtures of lipids, which dictate membrane property and function, is experimentally challenging to address. Here, we present an approach to tune and minimize membrane lipid composition in the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides and its derived ‘minimal cell’ (JCVI-Syn3A), revealing that a two-component lipidome can support life. Systematic reintroduction of phospholipids with different features demonstrates that acyl chain diversity is more important for growth than head group diversity. By tuning lipid chirality, we explore the lipid divide between Archaea and the rest of life, showing that ancestral lipidomes could have been heterochiral. However, in these simple organisms, heterochirality leads to impaired cellular fitness. Thus, our approach offers a tunable minimal membrane system to explore the fundamental lipidomic requirements for life, thereby extending the concept of minimal life from the genome to the lipidome. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e1ba06c8f0b745fd81537b6e6db489f4 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-e1ba06c8f0b745fd81537b6e6db489f42025-08-20T02:50:04ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-11-0115111710.1038/s41467-024-53975-yA tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for lifeIsaac Justice0Petra Kiesel1Nataliya Safronova2Alexander von Appen3James P. Saenz4Technische Universität Dresden, B CUBE Center for Molecular BioengineeringMax Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 107Technische Universität Dresden, B CUBE Center for Molecular BioengineeringMax Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 107Technische Universität Dresden, B CUBE Center for Molecular BioengineeringAbstract All cells are encapsulated by a lipid membrane that facilitates their interactions with the environment. How cells manage diverse mixtures of lipids, which dictate membrane property and function, is experimentally challenging to address. Here, we present an approach to tune and minimize membrane lipid composition in the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides and its derived ‘minimal cell’ (JCVI-Syn3A), revealing that a two-component lipidome can support life. Systematic reintroduction of phospholipids with different features demonstrates that acyl chain diversity is more important for growth than head group diversity. By tuning lipid chirality, we explore the lipid divide between Archaea and the rest of life, showing that ancestral lipidomes could have been heterochiral. However, in these simple organisms, heterochirality leads to impaired cellular fitness. Thus, our approach offers a tunable minimal membrane system to explore the fundamental lipidomic requirements for life, thereby extending the concept of minimal life from the genome to the lipidome.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53975-y |
| spellingShingle | Isaac Justice Petra Kiesel Nataliya Safronova Alexander von Appen James P. Saenz A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life Nature Communications |
| title | A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life |
| title_full | A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life |
| title_fullStr | A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life |
| title_full_unstemmed | A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life |
| title_short | A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life |
| title_sort | tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53975-y |
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