Semipermeable lipid bilayers exhibit diastereoselectivity favoring ribose.

ABSTRACT: Nutrient uptake by a primitive cell would have been limited by the permeability characteristics of its membrane. We measured the permeabilities of model protocellular membranes to water, five of the six pentoses, and selected aldohexoses, ketohexoses, and three to six carbon alditols by following volume changes of vesicles after the addition of solute to the external medium. Solute hydrophobicities correlated poorly with permeability coefficients within one structural class of compounds. The permeability coefficients of diastereomeric sugars differed by as much as a factor of 10, with ribose being the most permeable aldopentose. Flexible alditols and sugars, sugars biased toward or restricted to furanose forms, and sugars having anomers with hydrophobic faces permeated more quickly than co

SUBMITTER: Sacerdote MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC556129 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature