Membrane morphology induced by anisotropic proteins

TL;DR

This study explores how anisotropic proteins induce complex curvature changes in biological membranes, revealing a rich phase diagram and the influence of membrane rigidity on curvature formation.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of membrane topology changes caused by anisotropic proteins, highlighting the emergence of diverse curvature phases and the role of membrane rigidity.

Findings

Presence of both positive and negative Gaussian curvature phases

Negative Gaussian curvature phase favors screw dislocations with specific Burgers scalar

Membrane rigidity significantly influences curvature induction

Abstract

There are a great many proteins that localize to and collectively generate curvature in biological fluid membranes. We study changes in the topology of fluid membranes due to the presence of highly anisotropic, curvature-inducing proteins. Generically, we find a surprisingly rich phase diagram with phases of both positive and negative Gaussian curvature. As a concrete example modeled on experiments, we find that a lamellar phase in a negative Gaussian curvature regime exhibits a propensity to form screw dislocations of definite burgers scalar but of both chirality. The induced curvature depends strongly on the membrane rigidity, suggesting membrane composition can be a factor regulating membrane sculpting to to curvature-inducing proteins.