Emergent membrane morphologies in relaxed and tense membranes in presence of reversible adhesive pinning interactions. (21st October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kandy, Sreeja Kutti; Radhakrishnan, Ravi
• Is Part Of: Physical biology. Volume 16:Number 6(2019:Dec.)
• Publication Date: 2019-10-21
• Subjects: membrane adhesion -- membrane tension -- membrane pinning -- membrane excess area -- dynamically triangulated Monte Carlo -- vesiculation -- tubulation; Biophysics -- Periodicals; Biochemistry -- Periodicals; Biology -- Data processing -- Periodicals; 570.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/ab48d5
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-3967

Abstract

Abstract: The morphologies of cell membranes, and specifically the local curvature distributions are determined either by its intrinsic components such as lipids and membrane-associated proteins or by the adhesion forces due to membrane interactions with the cytoskeleton, extracellular matrix (ECM) and other cells in the tissue, as well as physical variables such as membrane and frame tensions. We present a computational analysis for a model of pinned membranes based on the dynamically triangulated Monte Carlo (MC) model for membranes. We show that membrane adhesion to ECM or a substrate promotes curvature generation on cell membranes, and this process depends on the excess area, or equivalently membrane tension, and the density of adhesion sites. This biophysics based model predicts adhesion induced biogenesis of microvesicles in cell membranes. For a moderate density of adhesion sites and high excess membrane area, an increase in membrane tension can result in the formation of microvesicles and tubules on the membrane. We also demonstrate the significance of intrinsically curved proteins in promoting vesiculation on pinned membranes. The results presented here are relevant to the understanding of microvesicle biogenesis and curved membrane topographies due to physical factors such as substrate stiffness and ECM interactions.