ABSTRACT

Hypothesis: Sensory perception in humans would not be possible without DHA and other polyunsaturated chains that drive rapid collisions among or between membrane proteins and enzymes.

Membranes and their proteins have coexisted for billions of years, ample time for evolution of sophisticated partnerships. These include the evolution of membrane lateral motion introduced in Chapter 2. For humans, the partnership between DHA-enriched membranes and their receptors is at the heart of sensory perception. Indeed, recent studies show that the largest superfamily of membrane proteins in humans depends on a collision-type mechanism driven by lateral membrane motion. An important member of this superfamily, rhodopsin, has already been discussed and is known to move at exceptional speed across the membrane surface. Whereas modulation of membrane lateral motion at the level of fatty acid structure represents an important mechanism for regulating activity of some essential membrane proteins and processes, many membrane-bound enzymes work independently of lipid motion.