Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 59: Complex Fluids and Colloids, Micelles and Vesicles (joint session CPP/DY)

CPP 59.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 11:45–12:00, ZEU 114

Charge regulation radically modifies electrostatics in membrane stacks — •Arghya Majee¹, Markus Bier^1,2, Ralf Blossey³, and Rudolf Podgornik⁴ — ¹MPI for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart & University of Stuttgart, Germany — ²University of Applied Sciences, Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Germany — ³University of Lille, CNRS, UMR8576 UGSF, France — ⁴CAS & KAVLI Institute of Theoretical Sciences, Beijing

Motivated by biological membrane-containing organelles in plants and photosynthetic bacteria, we study charge regulation in a model membrane stack [1]. Considering (de)protonation as the simplest mechanism of charge equilibration between the membranes and with the bathing environment [2], we uncover a symmetry-broken charge state in the stack with a quasiperiodic effective charge sequence. In the case of a monovalent bathing salt solution, our model predicts complex, inhomogeneous charge equilibria depending on the strength of the (de)protonation reaction, salt concentration, and membrane size. Our results shed light on the basic reorganization mechanism of thylakoid membrane stacks.

References:

[1] A. Majee, M. Bier, R. Blossey, and R. Podgornik, Phys. Rev. E 100, 050601(R) (2019).

[2] A. Majee, M. Bier, and R. Podgornik, Soft Matter 14, 985 (2018).