Curvature-induced clustering of cell adhesion proteins

TL;DR

This paper explores how membrane curvature influences the clustering of cell adhesion proteins, revealing conditions under which clustering occurs and distinguishing this mechanism from tilt-induced gradient sensing.

Contribution

It demonstrates the role of curvature sensing in protein clustering and compares it to previously proposed tilt-induced mechanisms.

Findings

Clustering emerges at intermediate adhesion and curvature-sensing strengths.

Curvature sensing leads to distinct clustering behavior from tilt-induced mechanisms.

The study identifies specific parameter ranges for clustering due to curvature effects.

Abstract

Cell adhesion proteins typically form stable clusters that anchor the cell membrane to its environment. Several works have suggested that cell membrane protein clusters can emerge from a local feedback between the membrane curvature and the density of proteins. Here, we investigate the effect of such curvature-sensing mechanism in the context of cell adhesion proteins. We show how clustering emerges in an intermediate range of adhesion and curvature-sensing strengths. We identify key differences with the tilt-induced gradient sensing mechanism we previously proposed (Lin et al., arXiv:2307.03670, 2023).