Fluctuations of a membrane nanotube revealed by high-resolution force measurements

Pulling membrane nanotubes from liposomes presents a powerful method to gain access to membrane mechanics. Here we extend classical optical tweezers studies to infer membrane nanotube dynamics with high spatial and temporal resolution. We first validate our force measurement setup by accurately meas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soft matter 2016-01, Vol.12 (47), p.9429-9435
Main Authors: Valentino, F, Sens, P, Lemière, J, Allard, A, Betz, T, Campillo, C, Sykes, C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beads
Bending modulus
Biomimetic Materials - chemistry
Chemical Sciences
Fluctuation
Force measurement
In vitro testing
Liposomes - chemistry
Membranes
Nanostructure
Nanotubes - chemistry
Optical Tweezers
Tubes
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Summary:Pulling membrane nanotubes from liposomes presents a powerful method to gain access to membrane mechanics. Here we extend classical optical tweezers studies to infer membrane nanotube dynamics with high spatial and temporal resolution. We first validate our force measurement setup by accurately measuring the bending modulus of EPC membrane in tube pulling experiments. Then we record the position signal of a trapped bead when it is connected, or not, to a tube. We derive the fluctuation spectrum of these signals and find that the presence of a membrane nanotube induces higher fluctuations, especially at low frequencies (10-1000 Hz). We analyse these spectra by taking into account the peristaltic modes of nanotube fluctuations. This analysis provides a new experimental framework for a quantitative study of the fluctuations of nanotubular membrane structures that are present in living cells, and now classically used for in vitro biomimetic approaches.
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/c6sm02117d