Ether lipid synthesis from enantiomeric medium-chain and long-chain O-alkyl-sn-glycerols in Leishmania donovani promastigotes.

A medium-chain O-alkylglycerol, 1-O-[1'-14C]dodecyl-sn-glycerol, has been found to be incorporated into plasmenyl ethanolamine by Leishmania donovani promastigotes as revealed by radio gas-liquid chromatography; however, the ether bond of the administered O-alkyl-glycerol was cleaved extensively as judged from the occurrence of radioactive acyl moieties. The labelling pattern produced by the radioactive 'natural' 1-O-octadecyl-sn-glycerol was similar though the latter served as a slightly better substrate for plasmalogens. Experiments with the enantiomeric 3-O-alkyl-sn-glycerols in comparison revealed that these were poor substrates for plasmalogen synthesis, although they were taken up in identical amounts and cleaved even to a higher extent. Therefore, we conclude the 1-0-alkyl-sn-glycerols were utilized directly for plasmenyl ethanolamine synthesis. The incorporation of the dodecyl residue into plasmenyl ethanolamine did not affect the multiplication and shape of cells.