Microphase separation in nonequilibrium biomembranes

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fluctuating forces influence microphase separation in biomembranes, revealing that force dynamics and coupling significantly affect membrane composition and steady states, with implications for cellular processes.

Contribution

It introduces a model showing how force fluctuations and their correlation times control membrane microphase separation and composition in biological membranes.

Findings

Force fluctuations influence membrane steady states.

Coupling strength and force correlation time are key factors.

Transient microphase separation occurs at 10-100 nm scales.

Abstract

Microphase separation of membrane components is thought to play an important role in many physiological processes, from cell signaling to endocytosis and cellular trafficking. Here, we study how variations in the membrane composition can be driven by fluctuating forces. We show that the membrane steady state is not only controlled by the strength of the forces and how they couple to the membrane, but also by their dynamics: In a simple class of models this is captured by a single a correlation time. We conclude that the coupling of membrane composition to normal mechanical forces, such as might be exerted by polymerizing cytoskeleton filaments, could play an important role in controlling the steady state of a cell membrane that exhibits transient microphase separation on lengthscales in the 10-100 nm regime.