Journal
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
Volume 143, Issue 24, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.4933087
Keywords
-
Funding
- JSPS KAKENHI [23350014]
- Next Generation Supercomputing Project
- Nanoscience Program
- TCCI/CMSI in the Strategic Programs for Innovative Research, MEXT, Japan
- U.S. National Science Foundation [1212416]
- Fujitsu PRIMERGY at Nagoya University through HPCI System Research Projects [hp140156, hp150131]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Chemistry [1212416] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [23350014] Funding Source: KAKEN
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The effects of membrane curvature on the free energy barrier for membrane fusion have been investigated using coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CG-MD) simulations, assuming that fusion takes place through a stalk intermediate. Free energy barriers were estimated for stalk formation as well as for fusion pore formation using the guiding potential method. Specifically, the three different geometries of two apposed membranes were considered: vesicle-vesicle, vesicle-planar, and planar-planar membranes. The free energy barriers for the resulting fusion were found to depend importantly on the fusing membrane geometries; the lowest barrier was obtained for vesicular membranes. Further, lipid sorting was observed in fusion of the mixed membranes of dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine and dioleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE). Specifically, DOPE molecules were found to assemble around the stalk to support the highly negative curved membrane surface. A consistent result for lipid sorting was observed when a simple continuum model (CM) was used, where the Helfrich energy and mixing entropy of the lipids were taken into account. However, the CM predicts a much higher free energy barrier than found using CG-MD. This discrepancy originates from the conformational changes of lipids, which were not considered in the CM. The results of the CG-MD simulations reveal that a large conformational change in the lipid takes place around the stalk region, which results in a reduction of free energy barriers along the stalk mechanism of membrane fusion. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available