ArticleThe ISME journal2021
Bridging the membrane lipid divide: bacteria of the FCB group superphylum have the potential to synthesize archaeal ether lipids.
Article in The ISME journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Characterization of aliA and aliB deletion mutants reveals a dominant role of AliA in Haloferax volcanii lipoprotein lipidation.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
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- Bacterial lipid synthesizing enzymes PlsY and PlsC utilize both stereo-forms of glycerol-phosphate.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- A lipidomics roadmap: from basic research to societal challenges.Nature communications · 2026Review
- The archaeal roots of eukaryotic life.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Phylum-wide propionate degradation and its potential connection to poly-gamma-glutamate biosynthesis in Candidatus Cloacimonadota phylum.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Structural basis and evolutionary pathways of glycerol-1-phosphate transport in marine bacteria.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Uncovering the prevalence, key biogenesis enzymes, and biological significance of archaeal lipoproteins.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Biosynthesis of lanosterol inSynthetic and systems biotechnology · 2025Article
- The role of ester- versus ether-linked phospholipids in the ability of biological membranes to accept protons and support proton diffusion.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Discovering Hidden Archaeal and Bacterial Lipid Producers in a Euxinic Marine System.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Production of Novel Energy Gases in Bioprocesses Using Undefined Mixed Cultures.Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology · 2025Review
- A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life.Nature communications · 2024Article
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- A tuneable minimal cell membrane reveals that two lipid species suffice for life.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The Archaeal Cell Cycle.Annual review of cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Cell envelope diversity and evolution across the bacterial tree of life.Nature microbiology · 2024Review
- The astrochemical evolutionary traits of phospholipid membrane homochirality.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2024Review
- Optimizing Archaeal Lipid Biosynthesis inACS synthetic biology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Archaea synthesize membranes of isoprenoid lipids that are ether-linked to glycerol-1-phosphate (G1P), while Bacteria/Eukarya produce membranes consisting of fatty acids ester-bound to glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P). This dichotomy in membrane lipid composition (i.e., the 'lipid divide') is believed to have arisen after the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA). A leading hypothesis is that LUCA possessed a heterochiral 'mixed archaeal/bacterial membrane'. However, no natural microbial representatives supporting this scenario have been shown to exist today. Here, we demonstrate that bacteria of the Fibrobacteres-Chlorobi-Bacteroidetes (FCB) group superphylum encode a putative archaeal pathway for ether-bound isoprenoid membrane lipids in addition to the bacterial fatty acid membrane pathway. Key genes were expressed in the environment and their recombinant expression in Escherichia coli resulted in the formation of a 'mixed archaeal/bacterial membrane'. Genomic evidence and biochemical assays suggest that the archaeal-like lipids of members of the FCB group could possess either a G1P or G3P stereochemistry. Our results support the existence of 'mixed membranes' in natural environments and their stability over a long period in evolutionary history, thereby bridging a once-thought fundamental divide in biology.
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