Conformational diversity of lipids

The conformational diversity of hydrophobic lipid chains has been studied. The number of possible conformations of a lipid chain, as well as the number of these conformations that can be realized in a real system, has been determined. A set theory approach to the analysis of conformations of lipid molecules has been proposed, and a relation of the sets of conformations realized in a lipid structure to the energy of the system has been introduced. Using the set theory, it has been considered which conformations of hydrophobic lipid chains can be realized in the real system. The notion of the key conformation has been formulated to estimate the correlation between the structural characteristics of lipids and the energy characteristics of membranes.