Abstract
Lipids are capable of forming a variety of structures, including multi-lamellar vesicles. Layered lipid membranes are found in cell organelles, such as autophagosomes and mitochondria. Here, we present a mechanism for the formation of a double-walled vesicle (i.e., two lipid bilayers) from a unilamellar vesicle through the partitioning and phase separation of a small molecule. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show that double membrane formation proceeds via a nucleation and growth process -i.e., after a critical concentration of the small molecules, a patch of double membrane nucleates and grows to cover the entire vesicle. We discuss the implications of this mechanism and theoretical approaches for understanding the evolution and formation of double membranes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 8806-8817 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Soft Matter |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 38 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 14 2020 |
Funding
This research was performed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. M. O. L. was supported by the Neutron Sciences Directorate (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), sponsored by the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. J. K. is supported through the Scientific User Facilities Division of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, sponsored by the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Program, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725.