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The structure of DHA in phospholipid membranes
Klaus Gawrisch1, Nadukkudy V Eldho, Laura L Holte
1Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland 20852, USA. gawrisch@helix.nih.gov
Abstract:
Early experiments and molecular simulations of PUFA favored a rigid arrangement of double bonds in U-shaped or extended conformations such as angle-iron or helical. Although results of recent solid-state NMR measurements and molecular simulations have confirmed the existence of these structural motifs, they portray an image of DHA (22:6n-3) as a highly flexible molecule with rapid transitions between large numbers of conformers on the time scale from picoseconds to hundreds of nanoseconds. The low barriers to torsional rotation about C-C bonds that link the cis-locked double bonds with the methylene carbons between them are responsible for this unusual flexibility. Both the amplitude and frequency of motion increase toward the terminal methyl group of DHA.