A minimal model of plasma membrane heterogeneity requires coupling cortical actin to criticality

Abstract

We present a minimal model of plasma membrane heterogeneity that combines criticality with connectivity to cortical cytoskeleton. Our model is motivated by recent observations of micron-sized critical fluctuations in plasma membrane vesicles that are detached from their cortical cytoskeleton. We incorporate criticality using a conserved order parameter Ising model coupled to a simple actin cytoskeleton interacting through point-like pinning sites. Using this minimal model, we recapitulate several experimental observations of plasma membrane raft heterogeneity. Small (r~20nm) and dynamic fluctuations at physiological temperatures arise from criticality. Including connectivity to cortical cytoskeleton disrupts large fluctuations, prevents macroscopic phase separation at low temperatures (T<=22°C), and provides a template for long lived fluctuations at physiological temperature (T=37°C). Cytoskeleton-stabilized fluctuations produce significant barriers to the diffusion of some membrane components in a manner that is weakly dependent on the number of pinning sites and strongly dependent on criticality. More generally, we demonstrate that critical fluctuations provide a physical mechanism to organize and spatially segregate membrane components by providing channels for interaction over large distances.

18 pages, 5 figures and 12 page Supplement (2 additional figures)

References in corpus (2)

• Near-critical fluctuations and cytoskeleton-assisted phase separation lead to subdiffusion in cell membranes
• Conditions for extreme sensitivity of protein diffusion in membranes to cell environments

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