Membrane buckling induced by curved filaments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new membrane buckling mechanism caused by curved filaments binding to lipid bilayers, leading to instability and tube formation, with potential validation through simple experiments.

Contribution

It presents a novel buckling instability mechanism driven by filament-induced strain on membranes, supported by linear stability analysis and numerical bifurcation studies.

Findings

Buckling threshold within in vivo parameters

Formation of long membrane tubes observed

Mechanism can be experimentally validated

Abstract

We present a novel buckling instability relevant to membrane budding in eukaryotic cells. In this mechanism, curved filaments bind to a lipid bilayer without changing its intrinsic curvature. As more and more filaments adsorb, newly added ones are more and more strained, which destabilizes the flat membrane. We perform a linear stability analysis of filament-dressed membranes and find that the buckling threshold is within reasonable in vivo parameter values. We account for the formation of long tubes previously observed in cells and in purified systems. We study strongly deformed dressed membranes and their bifurcation diagram numerically. Our mechanism could be validated by a simple experiment.