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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Posters: Membranes and Vesicles

BP 26.1: Poster

Donnerstag, 29. März 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Describing the motions in phospholipid membranes with concepts from glass physics — •Sebastian Busch¹ and Tobias Unruh^1,2 — ¹Physik-Department E13 and FRM II, Technische Universität München, Garching bei München, Germany — ²Lehrstuhl für Kristallographie und Strukturphysik, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

The diffusion of phospholipid molecules in membranes has been described very successfully by the free volume theory for many decades. This theory had originally been developed in the 1960s for glass physics. Although the macroscopic predictions of the theory are very well met, it became clear in recent years that the microscopic images of the motions on a molecular scale that are included in the free volume theory cannot be taken very literally.

In this contribution, we give a very short overview over the developments in glass physics since the 1960s and suggest that the microscopic description of the dynamics in phospholipid membranes could profit from an anew loan of their concepts such as soft modes and dynamical heterogeneities.

With these concepts, it is possible to explain the motions of phospholipid molecules on the pico- to nanosecond time scale which occur in transient clusters of molecules that move in a flow-like fashion. It rationalises also the small change of the motions on a 60 ps time scale when crossing the main phase transition.