Evidence for 2D Solitary Sound Waves in a Lipid Controlled Interface and its Biological Implications

Abstract

Biological membranes by virtue of their elastic properties should be capable of propagating localized perturbations analogous to sound waves. However, the existence and the possible role of such waves in communication in biology remains unexplored. Here we report the first observations of 2D solitary elastic pulses in lipid interfaces, excited mechanically and detected by FRET. We demonstrate that the nonlinearity near a maximum in the susceptibility of the lipid monolayer results in solitary pulses that also have a threshold for excitation. These experiments clearly demonstrate that the state of the interface regulates the propagation of pulses both qualitatively and quantitatively. We elaborate on the striking similarity of the observed phenomenon to nerve pulse propagation and a thermodynamic basis of cell signaling in general.

References in corpus (2)

• The capacitance and electromechanical coupling of lipid membranes close to transitions. The effect of electrostriction
• Periodic solutions and refractory periods in the soliton theory for nerves and the locust femoral nerve

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Mechanical Surface Waves Accompany Action Potential Propagation
• Solitary Shock Waves and Adiabatic Phase Transition in Lipid Interfaces and Nerves
• The thermodynamic soliton theory of the nervous impulse and possible medical implications
• The excitable fluid mosaic
• Generation of two-dimensional pulses in lipid monolayers by rapid photoswitching