Molecular modeling of membrane tube pearling and the effect of nanoparticle adsorption

The shape transformation of membrane tubes, also known as pearling, is thought to play an important role in a variety of cellular activities, like intracellular transport. Despite considerable experiments have investigating this phenomenon, the detailed molecular mechanism as well as how environmental factors affect the tube pearling instability is still ambiguous. In this work, we use computer simulation techniques to obtain a molecular-level insight into the tube pearling process. We find that the tube morphology is strongly determined by the water pressure inside membrane tubes. For example, the tube shrinkage and subsequent bending is observed when we decrease the inner water pressure. Contrarily, as we increase the inner water pressure, the tube pearling tends to occur in order to reduce the surface energy. Besides, our simulations show that the membrane tube pearling is regulated by the adsorption of nanoparticles (NPs) in two competing ways. One is that the NP adsorption can exert an additional membrane tension and thus promote the pearling and subsequent division of membrane tubes. On the other hand, the NP adsorption can locally rigidify the membrane and thus contrarily restrain the tube pearling. Therefore, the NP size, NP concentration and NP-membrane adhesion strength will collectively regulate the tube pearling process.