Alternative mechanisms of structuring biomembranes: Self-assembly vs. self-organization

Abstract

We study two mechanisms for the formation of protein patterns near membranes of living cells by mathematical modelling. Self-assembly of protein domains by electrostatic lipid-protein interactions is contrasted with self-organization due to a nonequilibrium biochemical reaction cycle of proteins near the membrane. While both processes lead eventually to quite similar patterns, their evolution occurs on very different length and time scales. Self-assembly produces periodic protein patterns on a spatial scale below 0.1 micron in a few seconds followed by extremely slow coarsening, whereas self-organization results in a pattern wavelength comparable to the typical cell size of 100 micron within a few minutes suggesting different biological functions for the two processes.

4 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Cellular organization by self-organization : mechanisms and models for Min protein dynamics
• Lifshitz-Slyozov Scaling For Late-Stage Coarsening With An Order-Parameter-Dependent Mobility

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Phase-space geometry of mass-conserving reaction-diffusion dynamics
• Suppression of coarsening and emergence of oscillatory behavior in a Cahn-Hilliard model with nonvariational coupling
• Turing instabilities in a mathematical model for signaling networks
• Localized states in coupled Cahn-Hilliard equations
• Spatio-temporal dynamics induced by competing instabilities in two asymmetrically coupled nonlinear evolution equations
• Nonreciprocity induces resonances in two-field Cahn-Hilliard model
• Local Order Controls the Onset of Oscillations in the Nonreciprocal Ising Model
• Chemomechanical motility modes of partially wetting liquid droplets
• Sorting of multiple molecular species on cell membranes
• Steady states and coarsening in one-dimensional driven Allen-Cahn system