Membrane lipids articles within Nature Chemistry

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• Article | 12 October 2020

  Enzyme-free synthesis of natural phospholipids in water

  It is unclear how phospholipid membranes formed on the early Earth, as modern cells synthesize the phospholipid constituents of their membranes enzymatically. Now, a combination of ion pairing and self-assembly has enabled transacylation of lysophospholipids with acyl donors in water, affording a variety of membrane-forming natural diacylphospholipids in high yields.

  • Luping Liu
  • , Yike Zou
  •  & Neal K. Devaraj

• Article | 27 August 2018

  A fluorescent membrane tension probe

  Lipid membranes—which separate cells and organelles from their environment—experience tension during various cell processes; however, measuring membrane tension is notoriously difficult. Now, a new fluorescent, mechanosensitive membrane probe called FliptR has been developed. FliptR enables simple, direct membrane tension measurements in cellular and artificial membranes.

  • Adai Colom
  • , Emmanuel Derivery
  •  & Aurélien Roux