Models for randomly distributed nanoscopic domains on spherical vesicles

Vinicius N.P. Anghel, Dima Bolmatov, John Katsaras

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10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The existence of lipid domains in the plasma membrane of biological systems has proven controversial, primarily due to their nanoscopic size - a length scale difficult to interrogate with most commonly used experimental techniques. Scattering techniques have recently proven capable of studying nanoscopic lipid domains populating spherical vesicles. However, the development of analytical methods able of predicting and analyzing domain pair correlations from such experiments has not kept pace. Here, we developed models for the random distribution of monodisperse, circular nanoscopic domains averaged on the surface of a spherical vesicle. Specifically, the models take into account (i) intradomain correlations corresponding to form factors and interdomain correlations corresponding to pair distribution functions, and (ii) the analytical computation of interdomain correlations for cases of two and three domains on a spherical vesicle. In the case of more than three domains, these correlations are treated either by Monte Carlo simulations or by spherical analogs of the Ornstein-Zernike and Percus-Yevick (PY) equations. Importantly, the spherical analog of the PY equation works best in the case of nanoscopic size domains, a length scale that is mostly inaccessible by experimental approaches such as, for example, fluorescent techniques and optical microscopies. The analytical form factors and structure factors of nanoscopic domains populating a spherical vesicle provide a new and important framework for the quantitative analysis of experimental data from commonly studied phase-separated vesicles used in a wide range of biophysical studies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number062405
JournalPhysical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
Volume97
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 11 2018

Funding

We thank Fred A. Heberle for constructive discussions and Jeremy Pencer for his careful reading of the manuscript. J.K. is supported through the Scientific User Facilities Division of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, sponsored by the Basic Energy Science (BES) Program, DOE Office of Science, under Contract No. DEAC05-00OR22725.

FundersFunder number
Basic Energy Science
DOE Office of Science
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences

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