Intravesicular Solute Delivery and Surface Area Regulation in Giant Unilamellar Vesicles Driven by Cycles of Osmotic Stresses.

ABSTRACT: Phospholipid bilayers are dynamic cellular components that undergo constant changes in their topology, facilitating a broad diversity of physiological functions including endo- and exocytosis, cell division, and intracellular trafficking. These shape transformations consume energy, supplied invariably by the activity of proteins. Here, we show that cycles of oppositely directed osmotic stresses─unassisted by any protein activity─can induce well-defined remodeling of giant unilamellar vesicles, minimally recapitulating the phenomenologies of surface area homeostasis and macropinocytosis. We find that a stress cycle consisting of deflationary hypertonic stress followed by an inflationary hypotonic one prompts an elaborate sequence of membrane shape changes ultimately transporting molecular c

SUBMITTER: Sambre PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10859933 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature