Related papers: Membrane-mediated repulsion between gramicidin por…
We have investigated the x-ray scattering signal of highly aligned multilayers of the zwitterionic lipid 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphatidylcholine containing pores formed by the antimicrobial peptide alamethicin as a function of the…
We study by synchrotron small-angle x-ray scattering highly aligned lamellar phases of a zwitterionic surfactant, doped with monodisperse and spherical hydrophobic inorganic particles as a function of particle concentration. Analysis of the…
Understanding interactions between membranes requires measurements on well-controlled systems close to natural conditions, in which fluctuations play an important role. We have determined, by grazing incidence X-ray scattering, the…
Amphipathic peptides are considered promising antibiotics because of their ability to form pores in bacterial membranes. In two companion papers, we analyzed both experimentally and theoretically the mechanisms and consequences of the…
We address the problem of antimicrobial peptides that create pores in lipid bilayers, focusing on voltage-temperature dependence of pore opening. Two novel experiments (voltage-clamp with alamethicin as an emblematic representative of these…
The interaction potential between supported floating bilayers has been determined by grazing incidence specular and off-specular scattering using synchrotron radiation. Our measurements demonstrate that floating bilayers are significantly…
The activity of cell membrane inclusions (such as ion channels) is influenced by the host lipid membrane, to which they are elastically coupled. This coupling concerns the hydrophobic thickness of the bilayer (imposed by the length of the…
We investigate the interaction between highly charged lipid bilayers in the presence of monovalent counterions. Neutron and X-ray reflectivity experiments show that the water layer between like-charged bilayers is thinner than for…
We determine by small-angle x-ray scattering the structure factor of hydrophobic particles inserted within lamellar surfactant phases for various particle concentrations. The data are then analyzed by numerically solving the…
The structure of membrane-active peptides and their interaction with lipid bilayers can be studied in oriented lipid membranes deposited on solid substrates. Such systems are desirable for a number of surface-sensitive techniques. Here we…
Relatively short peptides, such as toxins and antimicrobial-peptides, are known to insert themselves into cell membranes. On the basis of simple bead-spring models for the membrane lipids, the peptide, and water, detailed processes of the…
We report a high energy-resolution neutron backscattering study, combined with in-situ diffraction, to investigate slow molecular motions on nanosecond time scales in the fluid phase of phospholipid bilayers of…
Membrane proteins serve a wide range of vital roles in the functioning of living organisms. Compared to other classes of proteins, determining membrane protein structures remains a challenge, in large part due to the difficulty in…
Melittin, a natural antimicrobial peptide comprising 26 amino acid residues, can kill bacteria by inducing pores in cell membranes. Clinical applications of melittin as an antibiotic require a thorough understanding of its poration…
Using binary hard disk mixture models, we studied the two-dimensional ordering of bacteriorhodopsins in a lipid bilayer. The phase diagrams were calculated using the thermodynamic perturbation theory. We examined two types of effective…
We study membrane-protein interactions and membrane-mediated protein-protein interactions by Monte Carlo simulations of a generic coarse-grained model for lipid bilayers with cylindrical hydrophobic inclusions. The strength of the…
We investigate with computer simulations the critical radius of pores in a lipid bilayer membrane. Ilton et al. (2016) recently showed that nucleated pores in a homopolymer film can increase or decrease in size, depending on whether they…
We present an experimental study of the pore formation processes of small amphipathic peptides in model phosphocholine lipid membranes. We used atomic force microscopy to characterize the spatial organization and structure of alamethicin-…
Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they…
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…