Biological lipid nanotubes and their potential role in evolution
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https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-000130-7
THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL SPECIAL TOPICS
Review
Biological lipid nanotubes and their potential role in evolution Irep G¨ozen1,2,3,a and Paul Dommersnes4,b 1
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Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo 0318, Norway Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo 0315, Norway Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, G¨ oteborg 412 96, Sweden Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Hoegskoleringen 5, 7491 Trondheim, Norway Received 17 June 2020 / Accepted 3 August 2020 Published online 16 November 2020 Abstract. The membrane of cells and organelles are highly deformable fluid interfaces, and can take on a multitude of shapes. One distinctive and particularly interesting property of biological membranes is their ability to from long and uniform nanotubes. These nanoconduits are surprisingly omnipresent in all domains of life, from archaea, bacteria, to plants and mammals. Some of these tubes have been known for a century, while others were only recently discovered. Their designations are different in different branches of biology, e.g. they are called stromule in plants and tunneling nanotubes in mammals. The mechanical transformation of flat membranes to tubes involves typically a combination of membrane anchoring and external forces, leading to a pulling action that results in very rapid membrane nanotube formation – micrometer long tubes can form in a matter of seconds. Their radius is set by a mechanical balance of tension and bending forces. There also exists a large class of membrane nanotubes that form due to curvature inducing molecules. It seems plausible that nanotube formation and functionality in plants and animals may have been inherited from their bacterial ancestors during endosymbiotic evolution. Here we attempt to connect observations of nanotubes in different branches of biology, and outline their similarities and differences with the aim of providing a perspective on their joint functions and evolutionary origin.
The interior of a living mammalian cell contains membrane compartments with an incredible diversity of sizes and shapes. These membranes are not only structurally complex, they are also highly dynamic, and constantly flow and change in shape and topology. Here we focus on a particularly generic shape of biological membranes: membrane nanotubes, which are commonly observed structures in mammalians cells, and also occur in almost all other domains of life. The shape and dynamics of a b
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The European Physical Journal Special Topics
nanotubes appear to provide advantages for biological necessities such as transport of materials, and signaling within or between cells. Some types of biological nanotubes were observed decades ago, others have been recently established. Nanotubes occur in a variety of organism
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