Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 20: Membranes and vesicles I (joint session BP, CPP)

CPP 20.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 10:00–10:15, H 1028

Measuring the composition-curvature coupling in binary lipid membranes by computer simulations — •Israel Abraham Barragán Vidal and Marcus Müller — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Georg-August-Universität, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

This manuscript contributes to the field of biophysics, in particular, the formation of local composition inhomogeneities in model membranes (rafts). We present a simple phenomenological model to describe the effective coupling between curvature and composition in a two-component lipid bilayer. Beside the elastic contribution to the free energy and an intrinsic coupling between curvature and composition, our model also includes contributions from a composition- and curvature-dependent free energy of mixing.

Using an implicit-solvent model we extract the intrinsic composition-curvature coupling from computer simulations with planar and highly curved cylindrical bilayers. Beside the effective curvature-composition coupling, our computational strategy offers an alternative to obtain the spontaneous curvature from moments of the stress profile across a bilayer membrane. We expect this strategy will find further applications.