Assessing smectic liquid-crystal continuum models for elastic bilayer deformations.

ABSTRACT: For four decades, since W. Helfrich's pioneering study of smectic A liquid crystals in 1973, continuum elastic models (CEMs) have been employed as tools to understand the energetics of protein-induced lipid bilayer deformations. Among the assumptions underlying this use is that all relevant protein-lipid interactions can be included in the continuum representation of the protein-bilayer interactions through the physical parameters determined for protein-free bilayers and the choice of boundary conditions at the protein/bilayer interface. To better understand this assumption, we review the general structure of CEMs, examine how different choices of boundary conditions and physical moduli profiles alter the predicted bilayer thickness profiles around gramicidin A (gA) and mitochondrial volta

SUBMITTER: Lee KI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3730268 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature