德国Forschungszentrum Jülich研究所Jan Vermant小组发现,活性颗粒可在大型脂质囊泡中引起较大的形状改变。相关论文发表在2020年9月30日出版的《自然》杂志上。
Title: Active particles induce large shape deformations in giant lipid vesicles
Author: Hanumantha Rao Vutukuri, Masoud Hoore, Clara Abaurrea-Velasco, Lennard van Buren, Alessandro Dutto, Thorsten Auth, Dmitry A. Fedosov, Gerhard Gompper, Jan Vermant
Issue&Volume: 2020-09-30
Abstract: Biological cells generate intricate structures by sculpting their membrane from within to actively sense and respond to external stimuli or to explore their environment1,2,3,4. Several pathogenic bacteria also provide examples of how localized forces strongly deform cell membranes from inside, leading to the invasion of neighbouring healthy mammalian cells5. Giant unilamellar vesicles have been successfully used as a minimal model system with which to mimic biological cells6,7,8,9,10,11, but the realization of a minimal system with localized active internal forces that can strongly deform lipid membranes from within and lead to dramatic shape changes remains challenging. Here we present a combined experimental and simulation study that demonstrates how self-propelled particles enclosed in giant unilamellar vesicles can induce a plethora of non-equilibrium shapes and active membrane fluctuations. Using confocal microscopy, in the experiments we explore the membrane response to local forces exerted by self-phoretic Janus microswimmers. To quantify dynamic membrane changes, we perform Langevin dynamics simulations of active Brownian particles enclosed in thin membrane shells modelled by dynamically triangulated surfaces. The most pronounced shape changes are observed at low and moderate particle loadings, with the formation of tether-like protrusions and highly branched, dendritic structures, whereas at high volume fractions globally deformed vesicle shapes are observed. The resulting state diagram predicts the conditions under which local internal forces generate various membrane shapes. A controlled realization of such distorted vesicle morphologies could improve the design of artificial systems such as small-scale soft robots and synthetic cells.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2730-x
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2730-x
Nature:《自然》,创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团,最新IF:43.07
官方网址:http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接:http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html