Pathway of membrane fusion with two tension-dependent energy barriers - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2007 May 25;98(21):218101.

doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.218101. Epub 2007 May 23.

Affiliations

Pathway of membrane fusion with two tension-dependent energy barriers

Andrea Grafmüller et al. Phys Rev Lett. 2007.

Abstract

Fusion of bilayer membranes is studied via dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. A new set of DPD parameters is introduced which leads to an energy barrier for flips of lipid molecules between adhering membranes. A large number of fusion events is monitored for a vesicle in contact with a planar membrane. Several time scales of the fusion process are found to depend exponentially on the membrane tension. This implies an energy barrier of about 10k(B)T for intermembrane flips and a second size-dependent barrier for the nucleation of a small hemifused membrane patch.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources