Assessing the use of ellipsoidal microparticles for determining lipid membrane viscosity.

ABSTRACT: The viscosity of lipid membranes sets the timescales of membrane-associated motions, whether driven or diffusive, and therefore influences the dynamics of a wide range of cellular processes. Techniques to measure membrane viscosity remain sparse, however, and reported measurements to date, even of similar systems, give viscosity values that span orders of magnitude. To address this, we improve a method based on measuring both the rotational and translational diffusion of membrane-anchored microparticles and apply this approach and one based on tracking the motion of phase-separated lipid domains to the same system of phase-separated giant vesicles. We find good agreement between the two methods, with inferred viscosities within a factor of two of each other. Our single-particle tracking te

SUBMITTER: Jahl PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8715235 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature