Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes

Membrane tubulation by BAR superfamily proteins

Hiroshi Noguchi

Abstract: Bin/Amphiphysin/Rvs (BAR) superfamily proteins have a banana-shaped domain and bend the membrane along the domain axis. We have studied membrane shape changes induced by these banana-shaped protein rods using coarse-grained membrane simulations [1-7]. The protein rods self-assemble via membrane-mediated interactions as predicted by Fournier’s theory [5]. This assembly induces various membrane structures including tubulation, striped bumps, and spherical buds. The anisotropy of the spontaneous curvature of the rods plays essential roles in these structure formations. The helical arrangement of BAR domains on the membrane tubules was experimentally observed. To clarify the chirality effects, we add a chirality to our protein rod model. We found that the chirality induces the transition from the elliptical tube to a circular tube with a constant radius where the chiral protein rods are helically aligned [7]. Thus, the chirality is essential for the formation of cylindrical tubules.

[1] H. Noguchi, EPL 108, 48001 (2014).

[2] H. Noguchi, J. Chem. Phys. 143, 243109 (2015).

[3] H. Noguchi, Sci. Rep. 6, 20935 (2016).

[4] H. Noguchi, Phys. Rev. E 93, 052404 (2016).

[5] H. Noguchi and J.-B. Fournier, Soft Matter 13, 4099 (2017).

[6] H. Noguchi, Soft Matter 13, 7771 (2017).

[7] H. Noguchi, arXiv:1807.09444.

Friday, November 16 at 12:00pm in room 646A