On the role of anisotropy of membrane components in formation and stabilization of tubular structures in multicomponent membranes

Nataliya Bobrovska; Wojciech Góźdź; Veronika Kralj-Iglič; Aleš Iglič

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073941

On the role of anisotropy of membrane components in formation and stabilization of tubular structures in multicomponent membranes

PLoS One. 2013 Sep 16;8(9):e73941. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073941. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Nataliya Bobrovska¹, Wojciech Góźdź, Veronika Kralj-Iglič, Aleš Iglič

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

Influence of isotropic and anisotropic properties of membrane constituents (nanodomains) on formation of tubular membrane structures in two-component vesicle is numerically investigated by minimization of the free energy functional based on the deviatoric-elasticity model of the membrane. It is shown that the lateral redistribution and segregation of membrane components may induce substantial change in membrane curvature resulting in the growth of highly curved tubular structures.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anisotropy
Cell Membrane / metabolism*
Elasticity
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning

Grants and funding

The work of N.B. was realized within the International Ph.D. Projects Programme of the Foundation for Polish Science, co-financed from European Regional Development Fund within Innovative Economy Operational Programme “Grants for innovation”. A.I. and V.K.I. were supported by Slovenian Research Agency grants J1-4109, J1-4136, J3-4108 and P2-0232. W.G. would like to acknowledge support by NCN grant No. 2012/05/B/ST3/03302. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.