AUTHOR=Atherton Timothy J. 

TITLE=Shape Transitions in Anisotropic Multicomponent Lipid Tubules

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2016.00026

DOI=10.3389/fmats.2016.00026

ISSN=2296-8016

ABSTRACT=<p>Ternary mixtures of saturated and unsaturated lipids together with cholesterol can be induced to phase separate by photo-peroxidation into lipid-ordered (<italic>l<sub>o</sub></italic>) and lipid-disordered (<italic>l<sub>d</sub></italic>) domains. Because these have different mechanical properties, the phase separation is accompanied by dramatic changes in morphology. This work considers a tubule composed of <italic>l<sub>d</sub></italic> phase with <italic>l<sub>o</sub></italic> phase inclusions that possess greater rigidity; this system has been shown experimentally by Yuan and coworkers to spontaneously adopt either banded or disk configurations following phase separation. The static behavior of inter-domain interactions is analyzed in each of these geometries by solving the linearized shape equations. These calculations suggest a possible mechanism by which the two structures form.</p>