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The Role of Lipid Chains as Determinants of Membrane Stability in the Presence of Styrene

Yeh, Vivien; Goode, Alice; Johnson, David; Cowieson, Nathan; Bonev, Boyan B.

The Role of Lipid Chains as Determinants of Membrane Stability in the Presence of Styrene Thumbnail


Authors

Vivien Yeh

Alice Goode

David Johnson

Nathan Cowieson



Abstract

Biofermentative production of styrene from renewable carbon sources is crucially dependent on strain tolerance and viability at elevated styrene concentrations. Solvent-driven collapse of bacterial plasma membranes limits yields and is technologically restrictive. Styrene is a hydrophobic solvent that readily partitions into the membrane interior and alters membrane-chain order and packing. We investigate styrene incorporation into model membranes and the role lipid chains play as determinants of membrane stability in the presence of styrene. MD simulations reveal styrene phase separation followed by irreversible segregation into the membrane interior. Solid state NMR shows committed partitioning of styrene into the membrane interior with persistence of the bilayer phase up to 67 mol % styrene. Saturated-chain lipid membranes were able to retain integrity even at 80 mol % styrene, whereas in unsaturated lipid membranes, we observe the onset of a non-bilayer phase of small lipid aggregates in coexistence with styrene-saturated membranes. Shorter-chain saturated lipid membranes were seen to tolerate styrene better, which is consistent with observed chain length reduction in bacteria grown in the presence of small molecule solvents. Unsaturation at mid-chain position appears to reduce the membrane tolerance to styrene and conversion from cis- to trans-chain unsaturation does not alter membrane phase stability but the lipid order in trans-chains is less affected than cis.

Citation

Yeh, V., Goode, A., Johnson, D., Cowieson, N., & Bonev, B. B. (2022). The Role of Lipid Chains as Determinants of Membrane Stability in the Presence of Styrene. Langmuir, 38(4), 1348-1359. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02332

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 17, 2021
Online Publication Date Jan 19, 2022
Publication Date Feb 1, 2022
Deposit Date Jan 6, 2022
Publicly Available Date Jan 19, 2022
Journal Langmuir
Print ISSN 0743-7463
Electronic ISSN 1520-5827
Publisher American Chemical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 38
Issue 4
Pages 1348-1359
DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02332
Keywords Electrochemistry; Spectroscopy; Surfaces and Interfaces; Condensed Matter Physics; General Materials Science
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7167817
Publisher URL https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02332

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