Hydrodynamic Coupling of Particle Inclusions Embedded in Curved Lipid Bilayer Membranes

TL;DR

This paper develops theoretical and computational tools to study how particle inclusions move and interact within curved lipid bilayer membranes, revealing effects of curvature, viscosity, and intermonolayer slip on their hydrodynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for analyzing hydrodynamic coupling of particles in curved membranes, incorporating membrane curvature, solvent interactions, and intermonolayer slip effects.

Findings

Membrane curvature significantly affects particle mobility.

Intermonolayer slip influences hydrodynamic responses.

The methods enable analysis of collective particle dynamics in spherical bilayers.

Abstract

We develop theory and computational methods to investigate particle inclusions embedded within curved lipid bilayer membranes. We consider the case of spherical lipid vesicles where inclusion particles are coupled through (i) intramembrane hydrodynamics, (ii) traction stresses with the external and trapped solvent fluid, and (iii) intermonolayer slip between the two leaflets of the bilayer. We investigate relative to flat membranes how the membrane curvature and topology augment hydrodynamic responses. We show how both the translational and rotational mobility of protein inclusions are effected by the membrane curvature, ratio of intramembrane viscosity to solvent viscosity, and inter-monolayer slip. For general investigations of many-particle dynamics, we also discuss how our approaches can be used to treat the collective diffusion and hydrodynamic coupling within spherical bilayers.