Dependence of acyl chain packing of phospholipids on the head group and acyl chain length

Abstract

The temperature dependencies of the factor group splitting of the IR-active CH2-scissoring bands of a series of fully hydrated gel phase diacyl phospholipids were determined. In all cases, the acyl chains are packed in an orthorhombic subcell and the degree of rigidity of the subcell increases with increasing chain length. The subcell in 3-sn-phosphatidylcholines differs from that found in 3-sn-phosphatidylethanolamines and 3-phosphatidic acids.