Curvature-undulation coupling as a basis for curvature sensing and generation in bilayer membranes.

ABSTRACT: We present coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of the epsin N-terminal homology domain interacting with a lipid bilayer and demonstrate a rigorous theoretical formalism and analysis method for computing the induced curvature field in varying concentrations of the protein in the dilute limit. Our theory is based on the description of the height-height undulation spectrum in the presence of a curvature field. We formulated an objective function to compare the acquired undulation spectrum from the simulations to that of the theory. We recover the curvature field parameters by minimizing the objective function even in the limit where the protein-induced membrane curvature is of the same order as the amplitude due to thermal undulations. The coupling between curvature and undulations

SUBMITTER: Bradley RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5024647 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature