Lipid monolayer

In cell biology , the lipid monolayer is a special cell membrane that is found only in some archaea .

This cell membrane does not consist of two lipid layers, as is usual with bacteria or eukaryotes , but of two polyisoprenes that are linked in the middle and thus only form one continuous layer. This structure of the cell membrane can be found in hyperthermophilic archaea.

Due to their connection, the membrane becomes very rigid and can withstand such high temperatures of up to 121 ° C (current record).

swell

• Frank Hoffmann: Characterization of chiral Langmuir films with the help of IR spectroscopic, thermodynamic and imaging methods as well as biomimetic approaches to elucidate the mode of action of the antibiotic peptide Surfactin , Diss. Univ. Hamburg 2002, p. 6 PDF