Nonaxisymmetric Shapes of Biological Membranes from Locally Induced Curvature.

ABSTRACT: In various biological processes such as endocytosis and caveolae formation, the cell membrane is locally deformed into curved morphologies. Previous models to study membrane morphologies resulting from locally induced curvature often only consider the possibility of axisymmetric shapes-an indeed unphysical constraint. Past studies predict that the cell membrane buds at low resting tensions and stalls at a flat pit at high resting tensions. In this work, we lift the restriction to axisymmetry to study all possible membrane morphologies. Only if the resting tension of the membrane is low, we reproduce axisymmetric membrane morphologies. When the resting tension is moderate to high, we show that 1) axisymmetric membrane pits are unstable and 2) nonaxisymmetric ridge-shaped structures are ener

SUBMITTER: Omar YAD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7499066 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature