Bijvoet Center and Institute of Biomembranes, CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
FEBS Lett. 2010 May 3;584(9):1800-5. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.10.020. Epub 2009 Oct 20.
When acquiring internal membranes and vesicular transport, eukaryotic cells started to synthesize sphingolipids and sterols. The physical differences between these and the glycerophospholipids must have enabled the cells to segregate lipids in the membrane plane. Localizing this event to the Golgi then allowed them to create membranes of different lipid composition, notably a thin, flexible ER membrane, consisting of glycerolipids, and a sturdy plasma membrane containing at least 50% sphingolipids and sterols. Besides sorting membrane proteins, in the course of evolution the simple sphingolipids obtained key positions in cellular physiology by developing specific interactions with (membrane) proteins involved in the execution and control of signaling. The few signaling sphingolipids in mammals must provide basic transmission principles that evolution has built upon for organizing the specific regulatory pathways tuned to the needs of the different cell types in the body.
当真核细胞获得内部膜和小泡运输系统时，它们开始合成神经酰胺和甾醇。这些物质与甘油磷脂的物理性质差异一定使细胞能够在膜平面上对脂质进行分隔。将这一事件定位于高尔基体，然后使它们能够产生具有不同脂质组成的膜，特别是薄而灵活的内质网膜，由甘油磷脂组成，以及坚固的含有至少 50%神经酰胺和甾醇的质膜。除了分拣膜蛋白外，在进化过程中，简单的神经酰胺通过与参与信号转导执行和控制的（膜）蛋白发生特异性相互作用，在细胞生理学中获得了重要地位。哺乳动物中为数不多的信号神经酰胺必定提供了基本的传递原则，进化在此基础上构建了特定的调节途径，以适应体内不同细胞类型的需求。
