Fig. 1: The lipid divide and membrane organization in Thermococcus barophilus. | Communications Biology

Fig. 1: The lipid divide and membrane organization in Thermococcus barophilus.

From: Characterisation of a synthetic Archeal membrane reveals a possible new adaptation route to extreme conditions

Fig. 1

a Skeletal representation of phospholipids from Bacteria and Eukarya (left) and from Archaea (right). The arrows indicate the main differences between them. b The proposed membrane ultrastructure for the polyextremophilic archaeon Thermococcus barophilus. The membrane is composed of ca. half of monolayer-forming tetraether phospholipids (in blue with a blue polar headgroup) and half of bilayer-forming diether phospholipids (in red with a red polar headgroup). It is organized in membrane domains in monolayer or bilayer. The midplane of the bilayer is populated by c) polyunsaturated polyisoprenoids of 30 (squalane-derivatives, minor fraction) to 40 carbons (lycopane-derivatives, major fraction, black molecule).

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