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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Isolation and Compositional Analysis of Plant Cuticle Lipid Polyester Monomers
Published on: November 22, 2015
Cutin and suberin monomers are membrane perturbants
1Unité de Recherche sur les Protéines Végétales et leurs Interactions, INRA, rue de la Géraudière, 44316 Nantes, France. douliez@nantes.inra.fr
Abstract:
The interaction between cutin and suberin monomers, i.e., omega -hydroxylpalmitic acid, alpha, omega -hexadecanedioic acid, alpha, omega --hexadecanediol, 12-hydroxylstearic acid, and phospholipid vesicles biomimicking the lipid structure of plant cell membranes has been studied by optical and transmission electron microscopy, quasielastic light scattering, differential scanning calorimetry, and (31)P solid-state NMR. Monomers were shown to penetrate model membranes until a molar ratio of 30%, modulating their gel to fluid-phase transition, after which monomer crystals also formed in solution. These monomers induced a decrease of the phospholipid vesicle size from several micrometers to about 300 nm. The biological implications of these findings are discussed.
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