No Arabic abstract
Supported lipid bilayers have been studied intensively over the past two decades. In this work, we study the diffusion of single gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with diameter of 20 nm attached to GM1 ganglioside or DOPE lipids at different concentrations in supported DOPC bilayers. The indefinite photostability of GNPs combined with the high sensitivity of interferometric scattering microscopy (iSCAT) allows us to achieve 1.9 nm spatial precision at 1 ms temporal resolution, while maintaining long recording times. Our trajectories visualize strong transient confinements within domains as small as 20 nm, and the statistical analysis of the data reveals multiple mobilities and deviations from normal diffusion. We present a detailed analysis of our findings and provide interpretations regarding the effect of the supporting substrate and GM1 clustering. We also comment on the use of high-speed iSCAT for investigating diffusion of lipids, proteins or viruses in lipid membranes with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.
We use coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations to investigate diffusion properties of sheared lipid membranes with embedded transmembrane proteins. In membranes without proteins, we find normal in-plane diffusion of lipids in all flow conditions. Protein embedded membranes behave quite differently: by imposing a simple shear flow and sliding the monolayers of the membrane over each other, the motion of protein clusters becomes strongly superdiffusive in the shear direction. In such a circumstance, subdiffusion regime is predominant perpendicular to the flow. We show that superdiffusion is a result of accelerated chaotic motions of protein--lipid complexes within the membrane voids, which are generated by hydrophobic mismatch or the transport of lipids by proteins.
The membrane curvature of cells and intracellular compartments continuously adapts to enable cells to perform vital functions, from cell division to signal trafficking. Understanding how membrane geometry affects these processes in vivo is challengin
A biomimetic model of cell-cell communication was developed to probe the passive molecular transport across ion channels inserted in synthetic lipid bilayers formed between contacting droplets arranged in a linear array. Diffusion of a fluorescent probe across the array was measured for different pore concentrations. The diffusion characteristic time scale is found to vary non-linearly with the pore concentration. Our measurements are successfully modeled by a continuous time random walk description, whose waiting time is the first exit time from a droplet through a cluster of pores. The size of the cluster of pores is found to increase with their concentration. Our results provide a direct link between the mesoscopic permeation properties and the microscopic characteristics of the pores such as their number, size and spatial arrangement.
For more than ten years now, many efforts have been done to identify and characterize nature of obstructed diffusion in model and cellular lipid membranes. Amongst all the techniques developed for this purpose, FCS, by means of determination of FCS diffusion laws, has been shown to be a very efficient approach. In this paper, FCS diffusion laws are used to probe the behavior of a pure lipid and a lipid mixture at temperatures below and above phase transitions, both numerically, using a full thermodynamic model, and experimentally. In both cases FCS diffusion laws exhibit deviation from free diffusion and reveal the existence of domains. The variation of these domains mean size with temperature is in perfect correlation with the enthalpy fluctuation.
We numerically simulate the transport of elliptic Janus particles along narrow two-dimensional channels with reflecting walls. The self-propulsion velocity of the particle is oriented along either their major (prolate) or minor axis (oblate). In smooth channels, we observe long diffusion transients: ballistic for prolate particles and zero-diffusion for oblate particles. Placed in a rough channel, prolate particles tend to drift against an applied drive by tumbling over the wall protrusions; for appropriate aspect ratios, the modulus of their negative mobility grows exceedingly large (giant negative mobility). This suggests that a small external drive suffices to efficiently direct self-propulsion of rod-like Janus particles in rough channels.