Formation of inverted micelles in dispersions of mixed galactolipids

Several recent studies 1–5 have reported particles in freeze-fracture replicas of mixed phospholipid dispersions. The precise molecular arrangement of the particles is, however, still unknown 6,7 . We have previously shown that similar particles occur in dispersions of mixed sn -3- galactosyldiacylglycerols 8 . We demonstrate here that the particles seen in galactolipid mixtures correspond to inverted lipid micelles sandwiched within a membrane bilayer.