Chain-length heterogeneity allows for the assembly of fatty acid vesicles in dilute solutions.

ABSTRACT: A requirement for concentrated and chemically homogeneous pools of molecular building blocks would severely restrict plausible scenarios for the origin of life. In the case of membrane self-assembly, models of prebiotic lipid synthesis yield primarily short, single-chain amphiphiles that can form bilayer vesicles only at very high concentrations. These high critical aggregation concentrations (cacs) pose significant obstacles for the self-assembly of single-chain lipid membranes. Here, we examine membrane self-assembly in mixtures of fatty acids with varying chain lengths, an expected feature of any abiotic lipid synthesis. We derive theoretical predictions for the cac of mixtures by adapting thermodynamic models developed for the analogous phenomenon of mixed micelle self-assembly. We the

SUBMITTER: Budin I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4190651 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature