Skin lipid structure controls water permeability in snake molts |
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| Institution: | 1. Centro Interdipartimentale per la Ricerca per le Scienze Ambientali (C.I.R.S.A.), Università di Bologna, via S. Alberto 163, Ravenna, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Chimica delle Sostanze Naturali, Università di Napoli Federico II, via Montesano 49, 80131 Napoli, Italy;3. Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Università di Bologna, via Selmi 3, 40126 Bologna, Italy;4. Dipartimento di Chimica “G. Ciamician”, Università di Bologna, via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy;5. Istituto per la Sintesi Organica e la Fotoreattività, C.N.R., via Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy;6. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, F-38043 Grenoble, France;1. Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Southwest University), Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China;2. College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Wanzhou, Chongqing 404100, China;1. Uppsala University, Department of Engineering Sciences, Ångström Laboratory, Box 534, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden;2. Laboratoire de Technologie des Composites et Polymères (LTC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;3. SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, SP Wood Technology, P.O. Box 5609, SE-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden |
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| Abstract: | The role of lipids in controlling water exchange is fundamentally a matter of molecular organization. In the present study we have observed that in snake molt the water permeability drastically varies among species living in different climates and habitats. The analysis of molts from four snake species: tiger snake, Notechis scutatus, gabon viper, Bitis gabonica, rattle snake, Crotalus atrox, and grass snake, Natrix natrix, revealed correlations between the molecular composition and the structural organization of the lipid-rich mesos layer with control in water exchange as a function of temperature. It was discovered, merging data from micro-diffraction and micro-spectroscopy with those from thermal, NMR and chromatographic analyses, that this control is generated from a sophisticated structural organization that changes size and phase distribution of crystalline domains of specific lipid molecules as a function of temperature. Thus, the results of this research on four snake species suggest that in snake skins different structured lipid layers have evolved and adapted to different climates. Moreover, these lipid structures can protect, “safety”, the snakes from water lost even at temperatures higher than those of their usual habitat. |
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| Keywords: | Snake skin Water permeability Lipid structure Adaptation Evolution |
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