Bimodal Mechanical Response of Membrane Necks: Implications for the Nuclear Envelope
Beatrice J. Geiger, Weria Pezeshkian
TL;DR
This paper explores how membrane necks in structures like the nuclear envelope respond to mechanical forces, revealing a two-phase behavior that could impact cellular function and synthetic membrane design.
Contribution
The study identifies a bimodal mechanical response in membrane necks and provides a simple equation to predict their behavior under tension.
Findings
Membrane necks constrict under low pressure gradients but dilate above a threshold tension.
Neck behavior depends on pressure gradient, initial diameter, and membrane bending rigidity.
Protein complexes in the neck stabilize size while maintaining the two-phase response to tension.
Abstract
Among the fascinating shapes that biomembranes exhibit are stomatocytes with multiple membrane necks, found for example in nuclear membranes and open autophagosomes. These morphologies, characterized by a high topological genus, can be visualized as spherical double membranes connected by neck-like structures. The necks are often occupied by specific biomolecular complexes, such as the nuclear pore complex, which divide the space into three distinct compartments. Understanding how the size of these necks responds to pressure gradients is fundamentally important for deducing the influence of mechanical stimuli on traffic control through the necks, for example, in nuclear mechanosensing. In this work, we use computer simulations and theoretical analysis to investigate how neck size responds to variations in pressure or tension. Our findings demonstrate a two-phase behavior: below a…
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Taxonomy
TopicsNuclear Structure and Function · Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior · Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications