Solid-state NMR study of microalgal membranes and cell walls

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Poulhazan, Alexandre | Arnold, Alexandre, A | Warschawski, Dror, E. | Marcotte, Isabelle

Edité par CCSD ; IOP Publishing -

International audience. Microalgae are ubiquitous primary organisms that play key roles in the aquatic environment where they are the basis of the food web. These microorganisms also produce a variety of molecules with high added value, which find applications in human and animal nutrition, as therapeutic agents and as biofuels. Lipid membranes abound in microalgae where they protect the cell and are essential building blocks of organelles such as the chloroplast. To better understand the architecture and dynamics of microalgal cell membranes and their constituents, it is important that they are investigated in their natural environment. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SS-NMR) is emerging as a powerful tool to tackle these complex assemblies in situ on cell extracts and also in whole cells. Several nuclei can be studied to probe algal membranes and, moreover, microalgae can be fully 13 C-or 15 N-labeled in a cost-effective manner. In the case of full organism labelling, the challenge of SS-NMR is to develop and identify experiments to filter specific constituent signals. In this chapter, we show how SS-NMR can provide a wealth of information on the structure, dynamics and composition of microalgal membranes. We also summarize the main SS-NMR approaches so far applied on lipid extracts or whole cells under near to native conditions and suggest potential avenues to improve our understanding of these systems.

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