Effects of anchored flexible polymers on mechanical properties of model biomembranes

TL;DR

This study uses coarse-grained simulations to investigate how grafted polymers affect the mechanical properties of biomembranes, revealing increases in curvature and rigidity with higher polymer density, aligning with theoretical predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation approach combining meshless membranes with polymer chains to analyze entropic effects on membrane mechanics, providing new insights into polymer-membrane interactions.

Findings

Spontaneous curvature increases with polymer density.

Bending rigidity increases with polymer density.

Simulation results agree with theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We have studied biomembranes with grafted polymer chains using a coarse-grained membrane simulation, where a meshless membrane model is combined with polymer chains. We focus on the polymer-induced entropic effects on mechanical properties of membranes. The spontaneous curvature and bending rigidity of the membranes increase with increasing polymer density. Our simulation results agree with the previous theoretical predictions.