Nanodomain formation in lipid bilayers II: The influence of mixed-chain saturated lipids

An important class of lipids found in biological membranes are composed of two structurally different hydrocarbon chains. Among these, low-melting lipids possessing both a saturated and unsaturated chain have been intensely studied because of their biological abundance and influence on lipid rafts. In contrast, much less is known about the biophysical effects of mixed chains in high-melting lipids. Here, we investigated two such lipids--MSPC (14:0-18:0 PC) and SMPC (18:0-14:0 PC)--to determine how chain length mismatch and acyl chain position on the glycerol backbone influence lateral organization. We studied the temperature- and composition-dependent phase behavior of liposomes composed of either mixed-chain or symmetric-chain high-melting lipids plus DOPC and cholesterol, using techniques sensitive to domain formation at both microscopic and nanoscopic length scales. All studied mixtures exhibited liquid-ordered (Lo) + liquid-disordered (Ld) phase coexistence with domains that were visible in confocal microscopy experiments. FRET measurements showed that all mixtures also exhibited nanoscopic heterogeneity at temperatures above the microscopic miscibility transition temperature, and cryo-EM imaging further revealed bilayer thickness variation consistent with coexisting Ld and Lo phases. Both the microscopic miscibility transition temperature, μm-Tmix, and its nanoscopic counterpart, nm-Tmix, were strongly correlated with the melting transition temperature of the saturated lipid; the sole exception was SMPC/DOPC/Chol, whose μm-Tmix showed a significant negative deviation from the expected value, implying an enhanced propensity for nanoscopic phase separation in mixtures containing this high-melting species. These results point to strong effect of acyl chain position within mixed-chain high-TM lipids on the microscopic phase behavior of ternary mixtures.