Probing a self-assembled fd virus membrane with a microtubule

TL;DR

This study uses computer simulations to investigate how a microtubule interacts with a virus-based membrane, revealing the forces involved and the influence of particle fluctuations and osmotic pressure, with implications for experimental research.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation approach to understand microtubule penetration of virus membranes, highlighting the roles of fluctuations and osmotic pressure in the interaction.

Findings

Force on microtubule is zero outside and fully inside the membrane.

Microtubule experiences initial repulsion, then attraction during penetration.

Rotational fluctuations significantly influence interaction dynamics.

Abstract

The self-assembly of highly anisotropic colloidal particles leads to a rich variety of morphologies, whose properties are just beginning to be understood. This article uses computer simulations to probe a particle-scale perturbation of a commonly studied colloidal assembly, a monolayer membrane composed of rodlike fd viruses in the presence of a polymer depletant. Motivated by experiments currently in progress, we simulate the interaction between a microtubule and a monolayer membrane as the microtubule "pokes" and penetrates the membrane face-on. Both the viruses and the microtubule are modeled as hard spherocylinders of the same diameter, while the depletant is modeled using ghost spheres. We find that the force exerted on the microtubule by the membrane is zero either when the microtubule is completely outside the membrane or when it has fully penetrated the membrane. The microtubule is initially repelled by the membrane as it begins to penetrate but experiences an attractive force as it penetrates further. We assess the roles played by translational and rotational fluctuations of the viruses and the osmotic pressure of the polymer depletant. We find that rotational fluctuations play a more important role than the translational ones. The dependence on the osmotic pressure of the depletant of the width and height of the repulsive barrier and the depth of the attractive potential well is consistent with the assumed depletion-induced attractive interaction between the microtubule and viruses. We discuss the relevance of these studies to the experimental investigations. \end{abstract}