Electromechanical stability of planar lipid membranes from bipolar lipids of the thermoacidophilic archebacterium Sulfolobus acidocaldarius.

Stable planar membranes have been obtained from the bipolar lipid glycerol dialkyl nonitol tetraether (GDNT) extracted from the thermoacidophilic archebacterium Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. The electric capacity Cm, the resistance Rm and tension sigma of these membranes were measured. The dependence of the bipolar lipid membranes mean life time tau 1 on voltage was investigated. It was shown that the irreversible electric breakdown of membranes from GDNT and usual phospholipids is due to the same mechanism, viz., due to formation of a hydrophilic pore with an overcritical radius. Under electric field the GDNT molecules take U-shape, and the polar headgroups of such molecules cover the pore's interior.