Electrical Properties of Hydrogenated Planar Lipid Bilayers Formed from Archaea Lipids at Different Temperatures

Aljaž Velikonja, Peter Kramar, Damijan Miklavcic, Alenka Macek Lebar

SMARTEH Research and Development of Electronic Controlling and Regulating Systems, Tolmin, Slovenia

Abstract

This paper presents the study of electrical properties of hydrogenated planar lipid bilayers formed from thermophilic archaeal lipids extracted from Aeropyrum pernix K1. Study is focused on measuring electrical capacitance as parameter of the planar lipid bilayer thickness and breakdown voltage as parameter of planar lipid bilayer stability in electric field. The results show that both measured parameters of hydrogenated planar lipid bilayers formed from archeal lipids extracted from A. pernix K1 are not temperature dependant on measured temperature interval between 19 °C and 56 °C. Electrical capacitance is lower than in Molecular Dynamic simulations and in experiments using 2-Oleoyl-1-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) lipids or 2-Oleoyl-1-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoserine (POPS) lipids. Breakdown voltage is higher than in experiments with POPC or POPS lipids.

Keywords: planar lipid bilayers, temperature archaeal lipids, electrical capacitance, breakdown voltage