Issue 18, 2022

Subtle changes in pH affect the packing and robustness of fatty acid bilayers

Abstract

Connecting molecular interactions to emergent properties is a goal of physical chemistry, self-assembly, and soft matter science. We show that for fatty acid bilayers, vesicle rupture tension, and permeability to water and ions are coupled to pH via alterations to lipid packing. A change in pH of one, for example, can halve the rupture tension of oleic acid membranes, an effect that is comparable to increasing lipid unsaturation in phospholipid systems. We use both experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to reveal that a subtle increase in pH can lead to increased water penetration, ion permeability, pore formation rates, and membrane disorder. For changes in membrane water content, oleic acid membranes appear to be more than a million times more sensitive to protons than to sodium ions. The work has implications for systems in which fatty acids are likely to be found, for example in the primitive cells on early Earth, biological membranes especially during digestion, and other biomaterials.

Graphical abstract: Subtle changes in pH affect the packing and robustness of fatty acid bilayers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Cʼhwe. 2022
Accepted
18 Ebr. 2022
First published
19 Ebr. 2022

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 3498-3504

Subtle changes in pH affect the packing and robustness of fatty acid bilayers

L. A. Lowe, J. T. Kindt, C. Cranfield, B. Cornell, A. Macmillan and A. Wang, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 3498 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM00272H

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