paper

Membrane protein clustering from tension and multibody interactions

arXiv:2407.08631 · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/ad4ac2

Abstract

The point-curvature model for membrane protein inclusions is shown to capture multibody interactions very well. Using this model, we find that the interplay between membrane tension and multibody interactions results in a collective attraction of oppositely curved inclusions tending to form antiferromagnetic structures with a square lattice. This attraction can produce a phase separation between curved and non-curved proteins, resulting in the clustering of curved proteins. We also show that the many-body repulsion between identical curved proteins is enhanced by membrane tension. This can lead to the dissolution of clusters stabilized by short-range forces when the tension is increased. These new phenomena are biologically relevant and could be investigated experimentally

arXiv comment6 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (7)