The mechanisms by which lipid bilayer properties govern or influence membrane protein functions are little understood, but a liquid-crystalline state and the presence of anionic and nonbilayer (NB)-prone lipids seem important. An Escherichia coli mutant lacking the major membrane lipid phosphatidylethanolamine (NBprone) requires divalent cations for viability and cell integrity and is impaired in several membrane functions that are corrected by introduction of the "foreign" NBprone neutral glycolipid ␣-monoglucosyldiacylglycerol (MGlcDAG) synthesized by the MGlcDAG synthase from Acholeplasma laidlawii. Dependence on Mg 2؉ was reduced, and cellular yields and division malfunction were greatly improved. The increased passive membrane permeability of the mutant was not abolished, but protein-mediated osmotic stress adaptation to salts and sucrose was recovered by the presence of MGlcDAG. MGlcDAG also restored tryptophan prototrophy and active transport function of lactose permease, both critically dependent on phosphatidylethanolamine. Three mechanisms can explain the observed effects: NB-prone MGlcDAG improves the quenched lateral pressure profile across the bilayer; neutral MGlcDAG dilutes the high anionic lipid surface charge; MGlcDAG provides a neutral lipid that can hydrogen bond and/or partially ionize. The reduced dependence on Mg 2؉ and lack of correction by high monovalent salts strongly support the essential nature of the NB properties of MGlcDAG.The lipid bilayer of biological membranes acts as a permeability barrier permitting maintenance of essential ion gradients and is also the local environment for integral and peripheral membrane proteins. Important bilayer structural features are a liquid-crystalline state, an optimal length of the lipid chains, and critical fractions of anionic and nonbilayer-(NB) 1 prone lipids. Because of their small head groups the NB-prone lipids, when embedded in a bilayer, cause a curvature elastic stress of each monolayer with closer acyl chain packing (i.e. higher chain order) that changes the lateral pressure profile across the membrane (1). Increasing the proportion of NBprone lipids leads to a lower temperature for the bilayer to NB phase transition, which in many cases is fairly close to the growth temperature of organisms (2, 3). The balance of bilayer to NB-prone lipids may affect the passive membrane permeability of the bilayer (e.g. (4)), the folding and assembly of membrane proteins (5), and the function of important cellular processes such as cell division, transport, and osmotic responses. The essential character of such NB-prone lipids for cell membrane functions has been little studied.NB-prone lipids substantially affect the activity of several different types of proteins when studied in vitro. For example, a critical conformational change of transmembrane rhodopsin (6) and the activity of the interface-bound CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase (7) are modulated by variations in NBprone lipids and membrane curvature elastic stress, respectively. Likewise...