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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 31: Posters: Membranes and Vesicles
BP 31.10: Poster
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1
Panta Rhei -- Flow Behaviour in Phospholipid Membranes — •Sebastian Busch1, Christoph Smuda2, Luis Carlos Pardo3, and Tobias Unruh1 — 1Physik Department E13 and Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II), Technische Universität München, Lichtenbergstraße 1, 85748 Garching bei München — 2Institut für Pharmazeutische Wissenschaften, ETH Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich — 3Grup de Caracterització de Materials, ETSEIB, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, E-08028 Barcelona
The long-range motion of phospholipid molecules in the membrane has been of major interest for many years not only because of its importance for processes in the cell membrane but also the puzzling fact that short- and long-time techniques observed vastly different mobilities: Neutron scattering experiments observed much faster motions on the picosecond time scale than macroscopic techniques.
We show that our new high-precision quasielastic neutron scattering experiments are compatible with recent molecular dynamics simulations which propose a flow-like motion of the phospholipid molecules on short times. The difference of observed mobilities can be explained by the transition from this ballistic regime to normal diffusive behaviour.
The influence of additives on the phospholipid mobility, measured on the same time scale, will also be briefly addressed.