Interleaflet mixing and coupling in liquid-disordered phospholipid bilayers.

ABSTRACT: Organized as bilayers, phospholipids are the fundamental building blocks of cellular membranes and determine many of their biological functions. Interactions between the two leaflets of the bilayer (interleaflet coupling) have been implicated in the passage of information through membranes. However, physically, the meaning of interleaflet coupling is ill defined and lacks a structural basis. Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of fluid phospholipid bilayers of five different lipids with differing degrees of acyl-chain asymmetry, we have examined interleaflet mixing to gain insights into coupling. Reasoning that the transbilayer distribution of terminal methyl groups is an appropriate measure of interleaflet mixing, we calculated the transbilayer distributions of the acyl chain te

SUBMITTER: Capponi S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4703536 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature