Lipid membrane domains control actin network viscoelasticity
Abstract
The mammalian cell membrane is embedded with biomolecular condensates of protein and lipid clusters, which interact with an underlying viscoelastic cytoskeleton network to organize the cell surface and mechanically interact with the extracellular environment. However, the mechanical and thermodynamic interplay between the viscoelastic network and liquid-liquid phase separation of 2-dimensional (2D) lipid condensates remains poorly understood. Here, we engineer materials composed of 2D lipid membrane condensates embedded within a thin viscoelastic actin network. The network generates localized anisotropic stresses that deform lipid condensates into triangular morphologies with sharp edges and corners, shapes unseen in 3D composite gels. Kinetic coarsening of phase-separating lipid condensates accelerates the viscoelastic relaxation of the network, leading to an effectively softer composite material over intermediate timescales. We dynamically manipulate the membrane composition to control the elastic-to-viscous crossover of the network. Such viscoelastic composite membranes may enable the development of coatings, catalytic surfaces, separation membranes, and other interfaces with tunable spatial organization and plasticity mechanisms.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2406.13218,
title = {Lipid membrane domains control actin network viscoelasticity},
author = {Daniel P. Arnold and Sho C. Takatori},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.13218},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
There are 29 pages with four main figures and one table of contents (TOC) figure in the main text. Ancillary files include a supplemental appendix and three supplemental videos. The supplemental appendix contains three video legends, a supplemental note, and four supplemental figures