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Crystals of 1,2 dilauroyl-DL-phosphatidyl-ethanolamine:acetic acid are monoclinic with a = 46.2, b = 7.77, c = 9.95 A, beta = 92.0 degrees ; space group P2(1)/c. The structural analysis, based on the visual estimates of 1467 reflection intensities, was achieved by direct methods, and least squares analysis convergence was to R(1) = 0.28. There are marked differences between the observed molecular conformation and those that have been predicted theoretically. The mean planes containing the lipid chains are essentially parallel to one another; the phosphodiester moiety has a double gauche conformation, while intermolecular hydrogen bonding modifies the conformation that could be anticipated for an isolated phosphatidylethanolamine molecule. The intermolecular packing produces the classical lipid bilayer structure, adjacent lipid bilayers being separated by acetic acid molecules of crystallization. The hydrocarbon chain packing can be considered either as a quasi-hexagonal type or as a complex orthorhombic subcell arrangement. One-dimensional electron density profiles across the lipid bilayer at increasing resolution clearly demonstrate the origin of features present on the low resolution profiles of both model and natural membranes.
Hitchcock et al. (Thu,) studied this question.