2008/04/17 by Felix Campelo, F. Campelo, A. Hernández‐Machado +1 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems #cond-mat.soft #q-bio.QM #q-bio.SC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.158103
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 158103 (2008)
openalex publication_date 2008/04/17 · arxiv created 2008/04/21 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
A mechanism of extraction of tubular membranes from a lipid vesicle is presented. A concentration gradient of anchoring amphiphilic polymers generates tubes from budlike 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 budlike shape after removal of the polymer source, in accordance with recent experimental results.