Structural responses of model biomembranes to Mars-relevant salts

Kriegler, Simon; Herzog, Marius; Oliva, Rosario; Gault, Stewart; Cockell, Charles S.; Winter, Roland

doi:10.1039/d1cp02092g

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The membrane fluorophores used were N -Rh-DHPE (red, labeling the l d phase) and NBD-DHPE (green, labeling the l o phase). Reproduced with permission from ref . Copyright 2021 PCCP Owner Societies, licensed under CC BY 3.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent study, Kriegler et al 88 showed that the addition of high Martian-relevant salt concentrations to DPPC vesicles leads to deformation of the intact spherical GUVs. In the case of the perchlorate (Mg(ClO 4 ) 2 ) salt, extreme shrinkage and disappearance of vesicles occurred within minutes.…”

Section: Cosolvent Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, preparing the lipid vesicles in the Mg(ClO 4 ) 2 salt solution from the very beginning did not lead to formation of GUVs at all, whereas few and aggregated vesicles were still detected upon preparation in MgSO 4 solution. 88 To conclude this section, hydrostatic and osmotic pressure impose different effects on lipid bilayer membranes. Hydrostatic pressure favors the state of the smallest volume and thus probes differences in packing density.…”

Section: Cosolvent Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life in Multi-Extreme Environments: Brines, Osmotic and Hydrostatic Pressure─A Physicochemical View

et al. 2022

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Elucidating the details of the formation, stability, interactions, and reactivity of biomolecular systems under extreme environmental conditions, including high salt concentrations in brines and high osmotic and high hydrostatic pressures, is of fundamental biological, astrobiological, and biotechnological importance. Bacteria and archaea are able to survive in the deep ocean or subsurface of Earth, where pressures of up to 1 kbar are reached. The deep subsurface of Mars may host high concentrations of ions in brines, such as perchlorates, but we know little about how these conditions and the resulting osmotic stress conditions would affect the habitability of such environments for cellular life. We discuss the combined effects of osmotic (salts, organic cosolvents) and hydrostatic pressures on the structure, stability, and reactivity of biomolecular systems, including membranes, proteins, and nucleic acids. To this end, a variety of biophysical techniques have been applied, including calorimetry, UV/vis, FTIR and fluorescence spectroscopy, and neutron and X-ray scattering, in conjunction with high pressure techniques. Knowledge of these effects is essential to our understanding of life exposed to such harsh conditions, and of the physical limits of life in general. Finally, we discuss strategies that not only help us understand the adaptive mechanisms of organisms that thrive in such harsh geological settings but could also have important ramifications in biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cosolvent Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cosolvent Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life in Multi-Extreme Environments: Brines, Osmotic and Hydrostatic Pressure─A Physicochemical View

et al. 2022

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“…Intermolecular interactions are even more sensitive to pressure; typically 2 kbar leads to disaggregation of oligomeric structures [29,34,36]. Lipid-phase transition lines are also shifting with pressure, which is again a nice example for the Le Chatelier's principle: pressure stabilizes the more tightly packed gel phase [37,38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pressure Perturbation Studies of Noncanonical Viral Nucleic Acid Structures

Somkuti

Molnár

Grád

et al. 2021

Biology

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G-quadruplexes are noncanonical structures formed by guanine-rich sequences of the genome. They are found in crucial loci of the human genome, they take part in the regulation of important processes like cell proliferation and cell death. Much less is known about the subjects of this work, the viral G-quadruplexes. We have chosen three potentially G-quadruplex-forming sequences of hepatitis B. We measured the stability and the thermodynamic parameters of these quadruplexes. We also investigated the potential stabilization of these G-quadruplexes by binding a special ligand that was originally developed for cancer therapy. Fluorescence and infrared spectroscopic measurements were performed over wide temperature and pressure ranges. Our experiments indicate the small unfolding volume change of all three oligos. We found a difference between the unfolding of the 2-quartet and the 3-quartet G-quadruplexes. All three G-quadruplexes were stabilized by TMPyP4, which is a cationic porphyrin developed for stabilizing the human telomere.

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“…In a subsequent study of these Martian salts on lipid-based compartments, viz. model biomembranes, we could show that the fluidity, lateral organization and morphology of lipid membranes are largely affected under extreme salt and pressure conditions relevant to Mars-like environments [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural Responses of Nucleic Acids to Mars-Relevant Salts at Deep Subsurface Conditions

Knop

Mukherjee

Gault

et al. 2022

Life

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High pressure deep subsurface environments of Mars may harbor high concentrations of dissolved salts, such as perchlorates, yet we know little about how these salts influence the conditions for life, particularly in combination with high hydrostatic pressure. We investigated the effects of high magnesium perchlorate concentrations compared to sodium and magnesium chloride salts and high pressure on the conformational dynamics and stability of double-stranded B-DNA and, as a representative of a non-canonical DNA structure, a DNA-hairpin (HP), whose structure is known to be rather pressure-sensitive. To this end, fluorescence spectroscopies including single-molecule FRET methodology were applied. Our results show that the stability both of the B-DNA as well as the DNA-HP is largely preserved at high pressures and high salt concentrations, including the presence of chaotropic perchlorates. The perchlorate anion has a small destabilizing effect compared to chloride, however. These results show that high pressures at the kbar level and perchlorate anions can modify the stability of nucleic acids, but that they do not represent a barrier to the gross stability of such molecules in conditions associated with the deep subsurface of Mars.

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Structural responses of model biomembranes to Mars-relevant salts

Abstract: Lipid membranes are a key component of contemporary living systems and are thought to have been essential to the origin of life. Most research on membranes has focused on situations...

Cited by 7 publications

References 73 publications

Life in Multi-Extreme Environments: Brines, Osmotic and Hydrostatic Pressure─A Physicochemical View

Life in Multi-Extreme Environments: Brines, Osmotic and Hydrostatic Pressure─A Physicochemical View

Pressure Perturbation Studies of Noncanonical Viral Nucleic Acid Structures

Structural Responses of Nucleic Acids to Mars-Relevant Salts at Deep Subsurface Conditions

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