在耦合曲率和线张力的生物膜模型中对共存流体域进行成像。
Imaging coexisting fluid domains in biomembrane models coupling curvature and line tension.
作者信息
Baumgart Tobias, Hess Samuel T, Webb Watt W
机构信息
Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
出版信息
Nature. 2003 Oct 23;425(6960):821-4. doi: 10.1038/nature02013.
Lipid bilayer membranes--ubiquitous in biological systems and closely associated with cell function--exhibit rich shape-transition behaviour, including bud formation and vesicle fission. Membranes formed from multiple lipid components can laterally separate into coexisting liquid phases, or domains, with distinct compositions. This process, which may resemble raft formation in cell membranes, has been directly observed in giant unilamellar vesicles. Detailed theoretical frameworks link the elasticity of domains and their boundary properties to the shape adopted by membranes and the formation of particular domain patterns, but it has been difficult to experimentally probe and validate these theories. Here we show that high-resolution fluorescence imaging using two dyes preferentially labelling different fluid phases directly provides a correlation between domain composition and local membrane curvature. Using freely suspended membranes of giant unilamellar vesicles, we are able to optically resolve curvature and line tension interactions of circular, stripe and ring domains. We observe long-range domain ordering in the form of locally parallel stripes and hexagonal arrays of circular domains, curvature-dependent domain sorting, and membrane fission into separate vesicles at domain boundaries. By analysing our observations using available membrane theory, we are able to provide experimental estimates of boundary tension between fluid bilayer domains.
脂质双层膜在生物系统中无处不在,且与细胞功能密切相关,它展现出丰富的形状转变行为,包括芽的形成和囊泡裂变。由多种脂质成分形成的膜可横向分离成共存的液相或具有不同组成的区域。这一过程可能类似于细胞膜中筏的形成,已在巨型单层囊泡中直接观察到。详细的理论框架将区域的弹性及其边界性质与膜所采用的形状以及特定区域模式的形成联系起来,但通过实验探究和验证这些理论一直很困难。在这里,我们表明,使用两种优先标记不同流体相的染料进行高分辨率荧光成像,可直接提供区域组成与局部膜曲率之间的相关性。利用巨型单层囊泡的自由悬浮膜,我们能够光学分辨圆形、条纹和环形区域的曲率和线张力相互作用。我们观察到以局部平行条纹和圆形区域的六边形阵列形式存在的长程区域有序排列、曲率依赖的区域分选,以及在区域边界处膜裂变成单独的囊泡。通过使用现有的膜理论分析我们的观察结果,我们能够提供流体双层区域之间边界张力的实验估计值。