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Updated: Apr 24, 2026

Single-Molecule Diffusion and Assembly on Polymer-Crowded Lipid Membranes
Published on: July 19, 2022
Protein crowding on biomembranes: analysis of contour instabilities
1Nordita, Royal Institute of Technology, and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden and Physics Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA.
Abstract:
Collective behavior of proteins on biomembranes is usually studied within the spontaneous curvature model. Here we consider an alternative phenomenological approach, which accounts consistently for partial ordering of proteins as well as the anchoring forces exerted on a membrane by layer of proteins. We show analytically that such anisotropic interactions can drive membrane bending, resulting in nontrivial equilibrium morphologies. The predicted instabilities can advance our conceptual understanding of physical mechanisms behind collective phenomena in biological systems, in particular those with inherent anisotropy.
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