Phase separation of multicomponent lipid membranes is characterized by the nucleation and coarsening of circular membrane domains that grow slowly in time as ∼t^{1/3}, following classical theories of coalescence and Ostwald ripening. In this Letter, we study the coarsening kinetics of phase-separating lipid membranes subjected to nonequilibrium forces and flows transmitted by motor-driven gliding actin filaments. We experimentally observe that the activity-induced surface flows trigger rapid coarsening of noncircular membrane domains that grow as ∼t^{2/3}, a 2x acceleration in the growth exponent compared to passive coalescence and Ostwald ripening. We analyze these results by developing analytical theories based on the Smoluchowski coagulation model and the phase field model to predict the domain growth in the presence of active flows. Our Letter demonstrates that active matter forces may be used to control the growth and morphology of membrane domains driven out of equilibrium.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.128402 | DOI Listing |
Nat Comput Sci
December 2024
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
Soft materials underpin many domains of science and engineering, including soft robotics, structured fluids, and biological and particulate media. In response to applied mechanical, electromagnetic or chemical stimuli, such materials typically change shape, often dramatically. Predicting their structure is of great interest to facilitate design and mechanistic understanding, and can be cast as an optimization problem where a given energy function describing the physics of the material is minimized with respect to the shape of the domain and additional fields.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
December 2024
Ecole Centrale de Lyon, CNRS, ENTPE, LTDS, Ecully, UMR5513, 69130, France.
In the context of the oral cavity, an organic layer known as the mucosal pellicle (MP) adheres to the surface of the oral epithelium, playing a pivotal role in lubricating and safeguarding oral tissues. The formation of the MP is driven by interactions between a transmembrane mucin known as MUC1, located on the oral epithelium, and salivary secreted mucin, namely MUC5B and MUC7. This study aimed to investigate the function of MUC1 and the influence of its structure on MP lubrication properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembranes (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Medical Engineering, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, 4020 Linz, Austria.
The viscoelastic properties of biological membranes are crucial in controlling cellular functions and are determined primarily by the lipids' composition and structure. This work studies these properties by varying the structure of the constituting lipids in order to influence their interaction with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles. Various fluorescence-based techniques were applied to study lipid domains, membrane order, and the overall lateral as well as the molecule-internal glycerol region mobility in HDL-membrane interactions (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembranes (Basel)
December 2024
NYUAD Water Research Center, New York University Abu Dhabi, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab Emirates.
Membrane engineering is a complex field involving the development of the most suitable membrane process for specific purposes and dealing with the design and operation of membrane technologies. This study analyzed 1424 articles on reverse osmosis (RO) membrane engineering from the Scopus database to provide guidance for future studies. The results show that since the first article was published in 1964, the domain has gained popularity, especially since 2009.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMembranes (Basel)
November 2024
Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, IL 61801, USA.
Protein-lipid interactions demonstrate important regulatory roles in the function of membrane proteins. Nevertheless, due to the semi-liquid nature and heterogeneity of biological membranes, and dissecting the details of such interactions at high resolutions continues to pose a major challenge to experimental biophysical techniques. Computational techniques such as molecular dynamics (MD) offer an alternative approach with both temporally and spatially high resolutions.
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