Heads or tails? The distance-fluctuation criterion for melting, ΔB, shows that a dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) molecule undergoes a gel-to-liquid-crystal phase transition (Tm) at 297–301 K (see graph). Alkyl chains transform from trans to gauche at 297 K and interchain disorder sets in at 301 K. These temperatures are close to the Tm of a DMPC bilayer, which implies that the Tm is driven by intramolecular dynamical properties.
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Krishnamurty et al. (2008) studied this question.
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