The influence of bacterial lipid composition variation on transporter function and folding.

细菌物种的多样性是巨大的，而驻留在其膜上的广泛种类和分布的脂类突出了这种多样性。脂类是一种疏水化学物质，可以改变链长、饱和度、支化和头基电荷；所有这些都会导致膜厚度、净电荷和流动性的变化。脂类的变化也可以用来分类和区分细菌种类。尽管有这些知识，我们对脂类如何影响细菌膜功能的了解仍然很少。

Bacterial species diversity is vast and the wide variety and distribution of lipids that reside in their membranes highlights this diversity. Lipids are hydrophobic chemicals that can vary in chain length, saturation, branching and head group charge; all of which result in changes in membrane thickness, net charge and fluidity. Lipid variation has can also be used as a way to classify and distinguish bacterial species from one another. Despite this knowledge, our understanding of how lipids influence the function of bacterial membranes remains poorly understood.