Curvature Changes of Bilayer Membranes Studied by Computer Simulations

The deformation behaviors and corresponding curvature changes of bilayer membranes composed of amphiphiles are of biological importance and have potential industrial applications. Here, we study the curvature changes of bilayer membranes under the area-difference and spontaneous curvature effects with dissipative particle dynamics. By varying the relative quantity of the amphiphiles in two monolayers or the head-head interaction between the amphiphiles within each monolayer, rich morphological responses of the membranes are obtained. We find that some important factors such as the ability of amphiphiles to change their configurations in different membrane (crowded or sparse) environments and the coupling between the two monolayers, which are not included in the theoretical models, actually affect the deformation behavior of the membrane. Furthermore, the relationship between membrane deformation and fission (such as the transition from budding to scission of the bilayer) is also discussed, which is helpful in deeply understanding the fission event of the cell membrane.