Hopanoids

Hopanoids are pentacyclic compounds similar to sterols, whose primary function is to improve plasma membrane fluidity in prokaryotes. Cholesterol serves a similar function in eukaryotes (including humans).cite book | author = Madigan M; Martinko J (editors). | title = Brock Biology of Microorganisms | edition = 11th ed. | publisher = Prentice Hall | year = 2005 | id = ISBN 0-13-144329-1 ] This relationship between biochemical structure and cellular function can be seen in the similarity of the basic structures of diploptene, a hopanoid compound found in some prokaryotic cell membranes, and cholesterol, a sterol compound found in eukaryotic membranes (I, II, and III in images at right).

Hopanoid molecules, including particular types of hopanoid (2-alpha-methylhopanes) from photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacteria), were discovered by Roger Summons and colleagues as molecular fossils preserved in 2.7-billion-year-old shales from the Pilbara, Australia.cite journal | author = Brocks J, Logan G, Buick R, Summons R | title = Archean molecular fossils and the early rise of eukaryotes. | journal = Science | volume = 285 | issue = 5430 | pages = 1033–6 | year = 1999 | pmid = 10446042 | doi = 10.1126/science.285.5430.1033] The presence of abundant 2-alpha-methylhopanes preserved in these shales indicates that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved 2.7 billion years ago, well before the atmosphere became oxidizing.

In many bacteria hopanoids may play important roles in the adjustment of cell membrane permeability and adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. They are formed in the aerial hyphae—spore bearing structures—of the prokaryotic soil bacteria "Streptomyces", where they are thought to minimise water loss across the membrane to the air.cite journal | author = Poralla K, Muth G, Härtner T | title = Hopanoids are formed during transition from substrate to aerial hyphae in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). | journal = FEMS Microbiol Lett | volume = 189 | issue = 1 | pages = 93–5 | year = 2000 | pmid = 10913872 | doi = 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2000.tb09212.x] This is a physiological adaptation not faced by most bacteria which mainly live in water, but similar adaptations are needed by eukaryotic fungi that produce aerial spore bearing hyphae.

In the ethanol fermenting bacterium "Zymomonas mobilis" hopanoids may have a role in adaptation of cell membranes to ethanol accumulation and to temperature changes which influence membrane functions. In the actinomycete "Frankia", the hopanoids in diazovesicle membranes likely restrict the entry of oxygen by making the lipid bilayer more tight and compact.cite journal | author = Berry A, Harriott O, Moreau R, Osman S, Benson D, Jones A | title = Hopanoid lipids compose the "Frankia" vesicle envelope, presumptive barrier of oxygen diffusion to nitrogenase. | journal = Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A | volume = 90 | issue = 13 | pages = 6091–4 | year = 1993 | pmid = 11607408 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.90.13.6091]

Andrew H. Knoll, in "Life on a Young Planet" (2003), especially in Chapter 6, "The Oxygen Revolution", has an authoritative and very readable account of the usefulness of hopanoid molecular fossil biomarkers in reconstruction of early evolution and geology.cite book | author = Knoll A H | title = Life on a Young Planet: The first three billion years of evolution on the planet earth | edition = 1st ed. | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 2003 | id = ISBN 0-691-00978-3 ]

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