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Protein-Induced Morphological Deformations of Biomembranes

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Abstract

Many of the functions in living cells, such as endocytosis, cytokinesis, cell motility, and apoptosis, are mediated by the ability of the plasma membrane or organelles’ membranes to deform. While it is well established experimentally that the highly curved deformations of lipid membranes in cells are the result of their interactions with proteins, the understanding of the mechanisms leading to these structures is still in its infancy. Conventional modeling of membranes using sheet elasticity cannot explain the stability and dynamics of many of the complex membrane structures in the cell. In this chapter, we present two studies based on two different numerical approaches, which show how complex structures in cell membranes can emerge from the interplay between membrane elasticity and protein–membrane interactions. The first study is focused on the effect of energy-consuming protein binding/unbinding onto membrane morphology, and the second study is focused on the effect of cytoskeletal proteins on regulating membrane shapes.

Book Chapter in Physics of Biological Membranes, Eds. P. Sens and P. Bassereau.

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Acknowledgements

ML acknowledges financial support from NSF (DMR-0812470), NSF (DMR 0755447), and the Research Corporation (CC66879). PBSK acknowledges financial support from CSIR-India. The authors would like to thank N. Ramakrishnan, John Ipsen, Madan Rao, Eric Spangler, Cameron Harvey, and Joel Revalee for their contributions to the studies presented in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad, Palakkad, India

    P. B. Sunil Kumar

  2. Department of Physics and Materials Science, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA

    Mohamed Laradji

Authors
  1. P. B. Sunil Kumar
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  2. Mohamed Laradji
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohamed Laradji .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. PhysicoChimie Curie (UMR CNRS 168), Institut Curie, Paris, France

    Patricia Bassereau

  2. PhysicoChimie Curie (UMR CNRS 168), Institut Curie, Paris, France

    Pierre Sens

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Kumar, P.B.S., Laradji, M. (2018). Protein-Induced Morphological Deformations of Biomembranes. In: Bassereau, P., Sens, P. (eds) Physics of Biological Membranes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00630-3_20

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