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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

A Nanobar-Supported Lipid Bilayer System for the Study of Membrane Curvature Sensing Proteins in vitro
Published on: November 30, 2022
Molecular mechanism of vesicle division induced by coupling between lipid geometry and membrane curvatures
Naohito Urakami1, Takehiro Jimbo, Yuka Sakuma
1Department of Physics and Informatics, Yamaguchi University, 1677-1 Yoshida, Yamaguchi, 753-8512, Japan. urakami@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp.
Abstract:
We investigated the effects of lipid geometry on vesicle division using coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations. When the vesicle is composed of zero and negative spontaneous curvature lipids (ZSLs and NSLs), the difference in their molecular spontaneous curvatures destabilizes the neck of the limiting shape vesicle. In the vesicle division pathway, the neck developed into the stalk intermediates. The stalk was broken when the NSLs were expelled from the stalk. Free energy analysis shows that the coupling between the lipid geometry and the Gaussian rigidity is responsible for the observed vesicle division.
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