Search for the most 'primitive' membranes and their reinforcers: a review of the polyprenyl phosphates theory.

Terpenoids have an essential function in present-day cellular membranes, either as membrane reinforcers in Eucarya and Bacteria or as principal membrane constituents in Archaea. We have shown that some terpenoids, such as cholesterol and α, ω-dipolar carotenoids reinforce lipid membranes by measuring the water permeability of unilamellar vesicles. It was possible to arrange the known membrane terpenoids in a 'phylogenetic' sequence, and a retrograde analysis led us to conceive that single-chain polyprenyl phosphates might have been 'primitive' membrane constituents. By using an optical microscopy, we have observed that polyprenyl phosphates containing 15 to 30 C-atoms form giant vesicles in water in a wide pH range. The addition of 10 % molar of some polyprenols to polyprenyl phosphate vesicles have been shown to reduce the water permeability of membranes even more efficiently than the equimolecular addition of cholesterol. A 'prebiotic' synthesis of C10 and C15 prenols from C5 monoprenols was achieved in the presence of a montmorillonite clay. Hypothetical pathway from C1 or C2 units to 'primitive' membranes and that from 'primitive' membranes to archaeal lipids are presented.