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Register a new userA formula for membrane mediated point particle interactions on near spherical biomembranes
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We consider a model of a biomembrane with attached proteins. The membrane is represented by a near spherical continuous surface and attached proteins are described as discrete rigid structures which attach to the membrane at a finite number of points. The resulting surface minimises a quadratic elastic energy (obtained by a perturbation of the Canham-Helfrich energy) subject to the point constraints which are imposed by the attachment of the proteins. We calculate the derivative of the energy with respect to protein configurations. The proteins are constrained to move tangentially by translation and by rotation in the axis normal to a reference point. Previous studies have typically restricted themselves to a nearly flat membrane and circular inclusions. A numerically accessible representation of this derivative is derived and employed in some numerical experiments.
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We consider sharp interface asymptotics for a phase field model of two phase near spherical biomembranes involving a coupling between the local mean curvature and the local composition proposed by the first and second authors. The model is motivated by lipid raft formation. We introduce a reduced diffuse interface energy depending only on the membrane composition and derive the $Gamma-$limit. We demonstrate that the Euler-Lagrange equations for the limiting functional and the sharp interface energy coincide. Finally, we consider a system of gradient flow equations with conserved Allen-Cahn dynamics for the phase field model. Performing a formal asymptotic analysis we obtain a system of gradient flow equations for the sharp interface energy coupling geodesic curvature flow for the phase interface to a fourth order PDE free boundary problem for the surface deformation.
In this contribution to the proceedings of the 11th Mathematical Society of Japan (MSJ) Seasonal Institute (July 2018) we give an overview of some recent work on a mathematical model for small deformations of a spherical membrane. The idea is to consider perturbations to minimisers of a surface geometric energy. The model is obtained from consideration of second order approximations to a perturbed energy. In particular, the considered problems involve particle constraints and surface phase field energies.
Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they test the boundaries of our understanding of self-assembled lipid membranes, which are remarkable examples of two-dimensional complex fluids. Inclusions can couple to various degrees of freedom of the membrane, resulting in different types of interactions. In this chapter, we review the membrane-mediated interactions that arise from direct constraints imposed by inclusions on the shape of the membrane. These effects are generic and do not depend on specific chemical interactions. Hence, they can be studied using coarse-grained soft matter descriptions. We deal with long-range membrane-mediated interactions due to the constraints imposed by inclusions on membrane curvature and on its fluctuations. We also discuss the shorter-range interactions that arise from the constraints on membrane thickness imposed by inclusions presenting a hydrophobic mismatch with the membrane.
We derive and analyse an energy to model lipid raft formation on biological membranes involving a coupling between the local mean curvature and the local composition. We apply a perturbation method recently introduced by Fritz, Hobbs and the first author to describe the geometry of the surface as a graph over an undeformed Helfrich energy minimising surface. The result is a surface Cahn-Hilliard functional coupled with a small deformation energy We show that suitable minimisers of this energy exist and consider a gradient flow with conserved Allen-Cahn dynamics, for which existence and uniqueness results are proven. Finally, numerical simulations show that for the long time behaviour raft-like structures can emerge and stablise, and their parameter dependence is further explored.
Recently 1, we presented a general theory for calculat- ing the strength and properties of colloidal interactions mediated by ligand-receptor bonds (such as those that bind DNA-coated colloids). In this communication, we derive a surprisingly simple analytical form for the inter- action free energy, which was previously obtainable only via a costly numerical thermodynamic integration. As a result, the computational effort to obtain potentials of in- teraction is significantly reduced. Moreover, we can gain insight from this analytic expression for the free energy in limiting cases. In particular, the connection of our general theory to other previous specialised approaches is now made transparent. This important simplification will significantly broaden the scope of our theory.
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