Journal
ELIFE
Volume 3, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELIFE SCIENCES PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.03695
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Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy [DE-FG02-04ER46173]
- Ministry of Education - Singapore [MOE2009-T2-2-019]
- Nanyang Technological University Center for Biomimetic Sensor Science
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-FG02-04ER46173] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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Giant lipid vesicles are closed compartments consisting of semi-permeable shells, which isolate femto- to pico-liter quantities of aqueous core from the bulk. Although water permeates readily across vesicular walls, passive permeation of solutes is hindered. In this study, we show that, when subject to a hypotonic bath, giant vesicles consisting of phase separating lipid mixtures undergo osmotic relaxation exhibiting damped oscillations in phase behavior, which is synchronized with swell burst lytic cycles: in the swelled state, osmotic pressure and elevated membrane tension due to the influx of water promote domain formation. During bursting, solute leakage through transient pores relaxes the pressure and tension, replacing the domain texture by a uniform one. This isothermal phase transition resulting from a well-coordinated sequence of mechanochemical events suggests a complex emergent behavior allowing synthetic vesicles produced from simple components, namely, water, osmolytes, and lipids to sense and regulate their micro-environment.
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