Issue |
EPL
Volume 113, Number 5, March 2016
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 56005 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/113/56005 | |
Published online | 01 April 2016 |
Direct observations of transition dynamics from macro- to micro-phase separation in asymmetric lipid bilayers induced by externally added glycolipids
1 Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University - Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyoto University - Kyoto 615-8510, Japan
Received: 11 December 2015
Accepted: 23 March 2016
We present the first direct observations of morphological transitions from macro- to micro-phase separation using micrometer-sized asymmetric lipid vesicles exposed to externally added glycolipids (GM1:monosialotetrahexosylganglioside). The transition occurs via an intermediate stripe morphology state. During the transition, monodisperse micro-domains emerge through repeated scission events of the stripe domains. Moreover, we numerically confirmed such transitions using a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model, which describes both the intramembrane phase separation and the bending elastic membrane. The experimental and simulation results are in quantitative agreement.
PACS: 64.75.St – Phase separation and segregation in thin films / 87.16.D- – Membranes, bilayers, and vesicles / 87.14.Cc – Lipids
© EPLA, 2016
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