Department of Biology, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Biochim Biophys Acta Biomembr. 2019 Jul 1;1861(7):1284-1292. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2019.05.001. Epub 2019 May 5.
Ceramide phosphoethanolamine (CPE) is the major sphingolipid in invertebrates and in some bacterial species. It has been also detected in mammalian cells, although only in trace amounts. Complete understanding of the biophysical and physiological relevance of CPE is still lacking, and its biological role is still an open question. CPE differs in its biosynthetic mechanisms from sphingomyelin, due to the specific CPE synthase in invertebrates. In contrast to well-established sphingomyelin/cholesterol interactions that result in the formation of ordered membrane domains, the formation of ordered CPE/cholesterol domains is not favored. CPE might be crucial for the early development of Drosophila melanogaster, and it might be involved in the developmental stages of Trypanosoma brucei. As a Bacteroidetes-associated sphingolipid, CPE might also be involved in maintenance of these bacteria in their ecological niches. Therefore, efficient detection of CPE in biological systems is needed to better define its distribution and biological role(s).
神经酰胺磷酸乙醇胺（CPE）是无脊椎动物和某些细菌物种中主要的神经鞘脂。虽然在哺乳动物细胞中也检测到了 CPE，但含量非常低。由于无脊椎动物中存在特异性的 CPE 合成酶，因此 CPE 的生物物理和生理相关性的完全理解仍然缺乏，其生物学作用仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。与已确立的鞘磷脂/胆固醇相互作用形成有序膜域不同，CPE 的生物合成机制不同。与有助于形成有序膜域的鞘磷脂/胆固醇相互作用相反，CPE 形成有序域并不占优势。CPE 可能对黑腹果蝇的早期发育至关重要，并且可能参与布氏锥虫的发育阶段。作为拟杆菌相关的神经鞘脂，CPE 也可能参与这些细菌在其生态位中的维持。因此，需要在生物系统中有效地检测 CPE，以更好地定义其分布和生物学功能。
