Polymer-induced tubulation in lipid vesicles
Subcellular Processes
2008-04-22 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Quantitative Methods
Abstract
A mechanism of extraction of tubular membranes from a lipid vesicle is presented. A concentration gradient of anchoring amphiphilic polymers generates tubes from bud-like vesicle protrusions. We explain this mechanism in the framework of the Canham-Helfrich model. The energy profile is analytically calculated and a tube with a fixed length, corresponding to an energy minimum, is obtained in a certain regime of parameters. Further, using a phase-field model, we corroborate these results numerically. We obtain the growth of tubes when a polymer source is added, and the bud-like shape after removal of the polymer source, in accordance with recent experimental results.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0804.3329,
title = {Polymer-induced tubulation in lipid vesicles},
author = {F. Campelo and A. Hernandez-Machado},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0804.3329},
year = {2008}
}