Protein Modification

An article titled 'Palmitoylation: policing protein stability and traffic' which appreared in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 8, 74-84 (January 2007). A small snippet from it with links that were added by me:

Palmitate modifies both peripheral and integral membrane proteins and its addition can be permanent or transient, which makes it unique among the lipid modifications of proteins. The presence of palmitate on a protein affects how the protein interacts with lipids and proteins in a membrane compartment, and the reversibility of palmitoylation allows different modes of trafficking between membrane compartments.

The mechanisms involved confer much functional versatility. It is important to remember just how intricate biological functions involving lipids can be when pondering attempts to link evidence of natural lipid formations to a primitive pre-celluar membrane in OOL scenarios. I know the refrain that the present level of biological complexity did not exist in early stages of precellular forms but also would note that viable pre-cellular entities are largely unsupported by data.