Persistent Collective Motion of a Dispersing Membrane Domain
arXiv:2012.11271 · doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2021.03.011
Abstract
We study the Brownian motion of an assembly of mobile inclusions embedded in a fluid membrane. The motion includes the dispersal of the assembly, accompanied by the diffusion of its center of mass. Usually, the former process is much faster than the latter, since the diffusion coefficient of the center of mass is inversely proportional to the number of particles. However, in the case of membrane inclusions, we find that the two processes occur on the same time scale, thus prolonging significantly the lifetime of the assembly as a collectively moving object. This effect is caused by the quasi-two-dimensional membrane flows, which couple the motions even of the most remote inclusions in the assembly. The same correlations also cause the diffusion coefficient of the center of mass to decay slowly with time, resulting in weak sub-diffusion. We confirm our analytical results by Brownian dynamics simulations with flow-mediated correlations. The effect reported here should have implications for the stability of nano-scale membrane heterogeneities.
arXiv comment13 pages
References in corpus (10)
- Scaled Brownian motion: a paradoxical process with a time dependent diffusivity for the description of anomalous diffusion
- Corrections to the Saffman-Delbruck mobility for membrane bound proteins
- Correlated diffusion of membrane proteins and their effect on membrane viscosity
- Dynamic simulations of multicomponent lipid membranes over long length and time scales
- Correlated dynamics of inclusions in a supported membrane
- Dynamics of membranes with immobile inclusions
- Diffusion coefficient of an inclusion in a liquid membrane supported by a solvent of arbitrary thickness
- Calculating hydrodynamic interactions for membrane-embedded objects
- Anomalous lateral diffusion in a viscous membrane surrounded by viscoelastic media
- Many-particle mobility and diffusion tensors for objects in viscous sheets