Structural analysis of phosphatidyl choline lipids and glycerol precursors

The structures and stabilities of the glycerol (G) and glycerol 3-phosphate (G3P) isomers have been calculated in the gas phase, using an ab initio density functional theory (DFT) method. The different conformational structures are shown to be at the origin of the various phospholipid conformers, except, obviously, for the alkyl chain torsions. The G3P conformations have been examined taking into account the experimental structures of the complexation sites in the glycerol kinase (GK) and glycerol 3-phosphate acyl transferase (G3PAT) enzymes, which correspond to the first and second steps of the “de novo” phospholipid biogenesis, respectively. The conformational analysis of the glycerophosphate skeleton is shown to determine most of the structural characteristics of the phosphatidyl choline lipids, which differ by the length of their diacyl chains, i.e., dilauroyl (DL), dimyristoyl (DM), and dipalmitoyl (DP) phosphatidylcholines (PC). Higher energy conformers with kinks in the acyl chains have been found, in preparation for molecular dynamics studies of the chain melting phase transformation.