Related papers: Membrane morphology induced by anisotropic protein…
Intracellular protein patterns regulate a variety of vital cellular processes such as cell division and motility, which often involve dynamic changes of cell shape. These changes in cell shape may in turn affect the dynamics of…
Cell shape changes are largely controlled by the actin cytoskeleton, a dynamic filament network beneath the plasma membrane. Several cell types can form extended free-standing protrusions not supported by an extracellular substrate or…
Vesicle budding induced by protein binding that generates an isotropic spontaneous curvature is studied using a mean-field theory. Many spherical buds are formed via protein binding. As the binding chemical potential increases, the proteins…
A simple model of globular proteins which incorporates anisotropic attractions is proposed. It is closely related to models used to model simple hydrogen-bonding molecules such as water. Theories for both the fluid and solid phases are…
The shape transformations of fluid membranes induced by curved protein rods are studied using meshless membrane simulations. The rod assembly at low rod density induces a flat membrane tube and oblate vesicle. It is found that the…
Endocytosis is an essential biological process for the trafficking of macromolecules (cargo) and membrane proteins in cells. In yeast cells, this involves the invagination of a tubular structure on the membrane and the formation of…
We consider membranes as fluid deformable surface and allow for higher order geometric terms in the bending energy. The evolution equations are derived and numerically solved using surface finite elements. The higher order geometric terms…
The spatio-temporal organization of proteins and the associated morphological changes in membranes are of importance in cell signaling. Several mechanisms that promote the aggregation of proteins at low cell surface concentrations have been…
The disk-to-vesicle transition of a fluid membrane with no spontaneous curvature is well described by the competition between edge line and curvature energies. However, the transition of asymmetric membranes with spontaneous curvatures is…
Autophagy is an intracellular degradation process that employs complex membrane dynamics to isolate and break down cellular components. However, many unanswered questions remain concerning remodeling of autophagic membranes. Here, we focus…
The intricate shapes of biological membranes such as tubules and membrane stacks are induced by proteins. In this article, we systematically investigate the membrane shapes induced by arc-shaped scaffolds such as proteins and protein…
Cell adhesion proteins typically form stable clusters that anchor the cell membrane to its environment. Several works have suggested that cell membrane protein clusters can emerge from a local feedback between the membrane curvature and the…
A common mechanism for intracellular transport is the use of controlled deformations of the membrane to create spherical or tubular buds. While the basic physical properties of homogeneous membranes are relatively well-known, the effects of…
Solid sheets and fluid membranes exhibit buckling under lateral compression. Here, it is revealed that fluid membranes have anisotropic buckling surface tension contrary to solid sheets. Surprisingly, the surface tension perpendicular to…
The curvature sensitive localization of proteins on membranes is vital for many cell biological processes. Coarse-grained models are routinely employed to study the curvature sensing phenomena and membrane morphology at the length scale of…
We develop the elastic theory for inversion-asymmetric tethered membranes and use it to identify and study their possible phases. Asymmetry in a tethered membrane causes spontaneous curvature, which in general depends upon the local…
The interplay of membrane proteins is vital for many biological processes, such as cellular transport, cell division, and signal transduction between nerve cells. Theoretical considerations have led to the idea that the membrane itself…
We study the collective behavior of inclusions inducing local anisotropic curvatures in a flexible fluid membrane. The N-body interaction energy for general anisotropic inclusions is calculated explicitly, including multi-body interactions.…
Narrow membrane tubes are commonly pulled out from the surface of phospholipid vesicles using forces applied either through laser or magnetic tweezers or through the action of processive motor proteins. Recent examples have emerged where…
Fluid interfaces, such as soap films, liquid droplets or lipid membranes, are known to give rise to several special geometries, whose complexity and beauty continue to fascinate us, as observers of the natural world, and challenge us as…