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Coiling instability of multilamellar membrane tubes with anchored polymers

2001; American Physical Society; Volume: 63; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physreve.63.031603

1538-4519

Ilan Tsafrir, Marie‐Alice Guedeau‐Boudeville, Daniel Kandel, Joel Stavans,

Polymer Surface Interaction Studies

We study experimentally a coiling instability of cylindrical multilamellar stacks of phospholipid membranes, induced by polymers with hydrophobic anchors grafted along their hydrophilic backbone. Our system is unique in that coils form in the absence of both twist and adhesion. We interpret our experimental results in terms of a model in which local membrane curvature and polymer concentration are coupled. The model predicts the occurrence of maximally tight coils above a threshold polymer occupancy. A proper comparison between the model and experiment involved imaging of projections from simulated coiled tubes with maximal curvature and complicated torsions.