Structure of symmetric and asymmetric "ripple" phases in lipid bilayers

Abstract

We reproduce the symmetric and asymmetric ``rippled'' $P_{{\beta }^{\prime }}$ states of lipid membranes by Monte Carlo simulations of a coarse-grained molecular model for lipid-solvent mixtures. The structure and properties compare favorably with experiments. The asymmetric ripple state is characterized by a periodic array of fully interdigitated ``defect'' lines. The symmetric ripple state maintains a bilayer structure, but is otherwise structurally similar. The formation of both ripple states is driven by the propensity of lipid molecules with large head groups to exhibit splay.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (1)

• A Simple Computer Model for Liquid Lipid Bilayers

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