Calculating the Bending Modulus for Multicomponent Lipid Membranes in Different Thermodynamic Phases.

ABSTRACT: We establish a computational approach to extract the bending modulus, K_C , for lipid membranes from relatively small-scale molecular simulations. Fluctuations in the splay of individual pairs of lipids faithfully inform on K_C in multicomponent membranes over a large range of rigidities in different thermodynamic phases. Predictions are validated by experiments even where the standard spectral analysis-based methods fail. The local nature of this method potentially allows its extension to calculations of K_C in protein-laden membranes.

SUBMITTER: Khelashvili G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3770052 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature