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Updated: May 16, 2026

Single-Molecule Diffusion and Assembly on Polymer-Crowded Lipid Membranes
Published on: July 19, 2022
Influence of fluctuating membranes on self-assembly of patchy colloids
Richard Matthews1, Christos N Likos
1Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
A coarse-grained computational model is used to investigate the effect of a fluid membrane on patchy-particle assembly into biologically relevant structures motivated by viral cores and clathrin. For cores, we demonstrate a nonmonotonic dependence of the promotion of assembly on membrane stiffness. If the membrane is significantly deformable, cores are enveloped in buds, although this effect is suppressed for very flexible membranes. In the less deformable regime, we observe no marked enhancement for cores, even for strong adhesion to the surface. For clathrinlike particles, we again observe the formation of buds, whose morphology depends on membrane flexibility.
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