Because phospholipid synthesis takes place in the cytosolic leaflet of the ER lipid bilayer, there needs to be a mechanism that transfers some of the newly formed phospholipid molecules to the lumenal leaflet of the bilayer. In synthetic lipid bilayers, lipids do not “flip-flop” in this way (see Figure 10–10). In the ER, however, phospholipids equilibrate across the membrane within minutes, which is almost 100,000 times faster than can be accounted for by spontaneous “flipflop.” This rapid trans-bilayer movement is mediated by a poorly characterized asymmetric lipid bilayer of plasma membrane phospholipid translocator called a scramblase, which nonselectively equilibrates phospholipids between the two leaflets of the lipid bilayer (Figure 12–54). Thus, the different types of phospholipids are thought to be equally distributed between the two leaflets of the ER membrane.
The plasma membrane contains a different type of phospholipid translocator that belongs to the family of P-type pumps (discussed in Chapter 11). These flip-pases specifically recognize those phospholipids that contain free amino groups in their head groups (phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine—see Figure 10–3) and transfers them from the extracellular to the cytosolic leaflet, using the energy of ATP hydrolysis. The plasma membrane therefore has a highly asymmetric phospholipid composition, which is actively maintained by the flip-pases (see Figure 10–15). The plasma membrane also contains a scramblase but, in contrast to the ER scramblase, which is always active, the plasma membrane enzyme is regulated and only activated in some situations, such as in apoptosis and in activated platelets, where it acts to abolish the lipid bilayer asymmetry; the resulting exposure of phosphatidylserine on the surface of apoptotic cells serves as a signal for phagocytic cells to ingest and degrade the dead cell.
The ER also produces cholesterol and ceramide (Figure 12–55). Ceramide is made by condensing the amino acid serine with a fatty acid to form the amino alcohol sphingosine (see Figure 10–3); a second fatty acid is then covalently added to form ceramide. The ceramide is exported to the Golgi apparatus, where it serves as a precursor for the synthesis of two types of lipids: oligosaccharide chains are added to form glycosphingolipids (glycolipids; see Figure 10–16), and phosphocholine head groups are transferred from phosphatidylcholine to other ceramide molecules to form sphingomyelin (discussed in Chapter 10). Thus, both glycolipids and sphingomyelin are produced relatively late in the process of membrane synthesis. Because they are produced by enzymes that have their active sites exposed to the Golgi lumen, they are found exclusively in the noncytosolic leaflet of the lipid bilayers that contain them.
Figure 12–54 The role of phospholipid translocators in lipid bilayer synthesis.