Gating-by-tilt of mechanosensitive membrane channels

Abstract

We propose an alternative mechanism for the gating of biological membrane channels in response to membrane tension that involves a change in the slope of the membrane near the channel. Under biological membrane tensions we show that the energy difference between the closed (tilted) and open (untilted) states can far exceed kBT and is comparable to what is available under simple ilational gating. Recent experiments demonstrate that membrane leaflet asymmetries (spontaneous curvature) can strong effect the gating of some channels. Such a phenomenon would be more easy to explain under gating-by-tilt, given its novel intrinsic sensitivity to such asymmetry.

10 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Active Membrane Fluctuations Studied by Micropipet Aspiration
• Analytic models for mechanotransduction: gating a mechanosensitive channel
• Interactions between proteins bound to biomembranes

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Membrane-protein interactions in mechanosensitive channels
• Protein recruitment through indirect mechanochemical interactions
• Composition variation and underdamped mechanics near membrane proteins and coats
• Role of the membrane for mechanosensing by tethered channels
• Solvated Membrane Nanodiscoids: A Probe For The Effects Of Gaussian Curvature