MEMBRANA BACTERIAS ARQUEAS

In unsaturated fatty acids, these chains are kinked, and
cannot pack so closely. This increases membrane fluidity.
Agentes Estabilizantes:
Esteroles y Hoptanoides
Hopanoide - procariotas
Colesterol- eucariotas
Archaeal membrane lipids are very odd.
• They are joined by ether linkages (-O-), not ester
linkages (-COO-).
• The 'fatty acids' are terpenoids (polyisoprenes), not
real fatty acids.
• They are generally diglycerides with no head groups.
• The glycerol in the backbone is also of the opposite
chiral configuration to that in bacteria and eukaryotes.
Isoprene
Isoprene is the simplest member of a class of chemicals
called terpenes. By definition, a terpene is any molecule bilt
by connecting isoprene molecules together, rather like
building with Lego® blocks. Each isoprene unit has a "head"
and a "tail" end (again like a Lego® block), but unlike their toy
counterparts, isoprene blocks can be joined in many ways. A
head can be attached to a tail or to another head end, and
tails can be similarly joined. The immense variety of terpene
compounds that can be built from simple isoprene units
include beta-carotene (a vitamin), natural and synthetic
rubbers, plant essential oils (such as spearmint), and steroid
hormones (such as estrogen and testosterone).
While bacteria and eukaryotes have D-glycerol in their
membranes, archaeans have L-glycerol in theirs. This is
more than a geometric difference. Chemical components of
the cell have to be built by enzymes, and the
"handedness" (chirality) of the molecule is determined by
the shape of those enzymes. A cell that builds one form will
not be able to build the other form.
Branching of side chains : Not only are the side chains of
achaeal membranes built from different components, but the
chains themselves have a different physical structure.
Because isoprene is used to build the side chains, there are
side branches off the main chain. The fatty acids of bacteria
and eukaryotes do note have these side branches (the best
they can manage is a slight bend in the middle), and this
creates some interesting properties in archaeal membranes.
Methanopyrus lives in black smokers (which are very hot).
The ester bonds in conventional lipids would be hydrolysed,
yielding free fatty acids, phosphate, choline and glycerol. The
ether bonds of Methanopyrus resist hydrolysis and it has no
head group to lose!
Halobacterium lives in 1.5 M NaCl. The terpenoids chains
make membrane less fluid. This helps regulate salt uptake by
making the membrane extremely impermeable.
Note that this lipid has a headgroup: Halobacterium can cope
with this because it is not a
hyperthermophile.
Thermoplasma has no cell wall and lives at pH 2, 100°C. Its
lipids are crosslinked across the membrane, to form a stiff,
gel-like monolayer.
No other group of organisms (except Archaea)
can form such transmembrane phospholipids.
Ether linkages are less prone to hydrolysis, and membranespanning phytanyl groups make the membrane very rigid
and impermeable. This stops salt getting in, and stops the
membrane becoming too fluid at high temperatures. This
means that for many Archaea, the membrane is not a fluid
mosaic, but a more solid gel mosaic.
Another interesting property of the side branches is their
ability to form carbon rings. This happens when one of the
side branches curls around and bonds with another atom
down the chain to make a ring of five carbon atoms. Such
rings are thought to provide structural stability to the
membrane, since they seem to be more common among
species that live at high temperatures. They may work in the
same way that cholesterol does in eukaryotic cells to
stabilize membranes. It's interesting to note that cholesterol
is another terpene!
Mesosomas: Son invaginaciones de la membrana
citoplasmática con funciones especializadas. En ellos se
concentran las enzimas respiratorias e intervienen en la
división celular. Se conocen dos tipos:
Mesosomas de tabique (laminares): forman peredes
transversas durante la división celular. A ellos se fija el
cromosoma.
Mesosomas laterales
funciones de secreción.
(vesiculares):
intervienen
en
Los mesosomas desaparecen al formarse los protoplastos.
Respiratory components
R. rubrum
Gemmata bacteria are aerobic chemoheterotrophs that have
budding reproduction. Gemmata lack peptidoglycan in their cell
walls and have crateriform structures (circular pits) on their cell
surfaces (as do all planctomycetes).
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