2020/04/02 by Francesco Bonazzi, Bonazzi, Francesco, Carol K. Hall +3
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Micro and Nano Robotics #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Stochastic processes and statistical mechanics #Subcellular Processes (q-bio.SC)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2004.00987
openalex publication_date 2020/04/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Biological membranes are shaped by various proteins that either generate\ninward or outward membrane curvature. In this article, we investigate the\nmembrane morphologies induced by mixtures of arc-shaped particles with\ncoarse-grained modeling and simulations. The particles bind to the membranes\neither with their inward, concave side or their outward, convex side and, thus,\ngenerate membrane curvature of opposite sign. We find that small fractions of\nconvex-binding particles can stabilize three-way junctions of membrane tubules,\nas suggested for the protein lunapark in the endoplasmic reticulum of cells.\nFor comparable fractions of concave-binding and convex-binding particles, we\nobserve lines of particles of the same type, and diverse membrane morphologies\nwith grooves and bulges induced by these particle lines. The alignment and\nsegregation of the particles is driven by indirect, membrane-mediated\ninteractions.\n