2021/04/15 by Ramach, Ulrich, Schöfbeck, Rosmarie, Andersson, Jakob +1
#Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2104.07709
The light-driven reactions of photosynthesis, as well as the mitochondrial power supply, are hosted within specialized membranes containing a high fraction of redoxactive lipids. Protein mobility and diffusion of redox lipids is believed to be the in plane charge transfer mechanism along such cell membranes. Using a membrane-on-a-chip setup, we show that redox-active model membranes can conduct and sustain surprisingly high (mA) currents with a specific resistivity typical for semiconductors. Our data suggest that charge transfer within cell walls hosting electron-transferchains is driven by self-assembling molecular redox-wires that effectively couple redox-proteins by a simultaneous electron and proton in plane hopping within a membrane. This completely alters our understanding of the role of lipid membranes with wide-range implications suggesting e.g. that conducting membranes may be the precursor for evolving complex redox-machineries of life, and electrochemical membrane deterioration may play an important role in mitochondrial aging. Further, these self-assembling organic 2D-conductors offer technologically exploitable features allowing for designing self-assembling and adaptive bio-electronics.