Motional Coherence in Fluid Phospholipid Membranes

We report a high energy-resolution neutron backscattering study, combined with in situ diffraction, to investigate slow molecular motions on nanosecond time scales in the fluid phase of phospholipid bilayers of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phoshatidylcholine. A cooperative structural relaxation process was observed. From the in-plane scattering vector dependence of the relaxation rates in hydrogenated and deuterated samples, combined with results from a 0.1 mu s long all-atom molecular dynamics simulation, it is concluded that correlated dynamics in lipid membranes occurs over several lipid distances, spanning a time interval from pico- to nanoseconds.