FIG. 3.

NPN fluorescence of Stm(pNir) and Stm(pΔ¹²) membranes. Overproduction of Δ¹²-desaturase induced membrane destabilization, which resulted in a permanent leakiness of the outer membrane of Stm(pΔ¹²) compared to Stm(pNir). The effect is very significant within the physiological range of 25° to 40°C while it is not present at higher temperatures. Bars represent the standard deviation. All statistical differences were evaluated by a two-tailed Student's t test. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. All experiments were performed at least in quadruplicates.