Field theoretic study of bilayer membrane fusion III: membranes with leaves of different composition.

We extend previous work on homogeneous bilayers to calculate the barriers to fusion of planar bilayers that contain two different amphiphiles, a lamellar former and a hexagonal former, with different compositions of the two in each leaf. Self-consistent field theory is employed, and both standard and alternative pathways are explored. We first calculate these barriers as the amount of hexagonal former is increased equally in both leaves to levels appropriate to the plasma membrane of human red blood cells. We follow these barriers as the composition of hexagonal formers is then increased in the cis layer and decreased in the trans layer, again to an extent comparable to the biological system. We find that, while the fusion pathway exhibits two barriers in both the standard and alternative pathways, in both cases the magnitudes of these barriers are comparable to one another, and small, on the order of 13 k(B)T. As a consequence, one expects that once the bilayers are brought sufficiently close to one another to initiate the process, fusion should occur rapidly.