Complex dynamics at the nanoscale in simple biomembranes.

ABSTRACT: Nature is known to engineer complex compositional and dynamical platforms in biological membranes. Understanding this complex landscape requires techniques to simultaneously detect membrane re-organization and dynamics at the nanoscale. Using super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy coupled with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), we reveal direct experimental evidence of dynamic heterogeneity at the nanoscale in binary phospholipid-cholesterol bilayers. Domain formation on the length scale of ~200-600 nm due to local cholesterol compositional heterogeneity is found to be more prominent at high cholesterol content giving rise to distinct intra-domain lipid dynamics. STED-FCS reveals unique dynamical crossover phenomena at length scales of ~100-150 nm within

SUBMITTER: Sarangi NK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5593986 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature