Department of Marine Organic Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, NL-1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2014 Jun;12(6):438-48. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro3260. Epub 2014 May 7.
Archaea produce unique membrane lipids in which isoprenoid alkyl chains are bound to glycerol moieties via ether linkages. As cultured representatives of the Archaea have become increasingly available throughout the past decade, archaeal genomic and membrane lipid-composition data have also become available. In this Analysis article, we compare the amino acid sequences of the key enzymes of the archaeal ether-lipid biosynthesis pathway and critically evaluate past studies on the biochemical functions of these enzymes. We propose an alternative archaeal lipid biosynthetic pathway that is based on a 'multiple-key, multiple-lock' mechanism.
古菌通过醚键将类异戊二烯烷基链连接到甘油基团上，从而产生独特的膜脂。在过去的十年中，随着培养的古菌代表越来越多，古菌的基因组和膜脂组成数据也越来越丰富。在这篇分析文章中，我们比较了古菌醚脂生物合成途径的关键酶的氨基酸序列，并批判性地评估了这些酶的生化功能的过去研究。我们提出了一种基于“多关键、多锁”机制的替代古菌脂质生物合成途径。
