Cell membranes contain incredible diversity in the chemical structures of their individual lipid species and the ratios in which these lipids are combined to make membranes. Nevertheless, our current understanding of how each of these components affects the properties of the cell membrane remains elusive, in part due to the difficulties in studying the dynamics of membranes at high spatiotemporal resolution. In this work, we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how individual lipid species contribute to the biophysical properties of the neuronal plasma membrane. We progress through eight membranes of increasing chemical complexity, ranging from a simple POPC/CHOL membrane to a previously published neuronal plasma membrane [Ingólfsson, H. I., et al. (2017) Biophys. J. 113 (10), 2271–2280] containing 49 distinct lipid species. Our results show how subtle chemical changes can affect the properties of the membrane and highlight the lipid species that give the neuronal plasma membrane its unique biophysical properties. This work has potential far-reaching implications for furthering our understanding of cell membranes.

中文翻译：

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了解脂质多样性和神经元血浆膜的生物物理特性之间的联系。

细胞膜在其各个脂质种类的化学结构以及这些脂质结合形成膜的比率中具有令人难以置信的多样性。然而，我们目前对于这些成分中的每一种如何影响细胞膜特性的理解仍然难以捉摸，部分是由于在高时空分辨率下研究膜动力学的困难。在这项工作中，我们使用粗粒度的分子动力学模拟来研究单个脂质物种如何促进神经元质膜的生物物理特性。我们研究了八种化学复杂性不断提高的膜，从简单的POPC / CHOL膜到先前发表的神经元质膜[Ingólfsson，HI等。（2017）生物物理。J.113（10），2271–2280]包含49种不同的脂质种类。我们的结果表明，微妙的化学变化如何影响膜的特性，并突出了赋予神经元质膜独特的生物物理特性的脂质种类。这项工作对增进我们对细胞膜的理解具有潜在的深远影响。