Polyhedral vesicles: a Brownian dynamics simulation.
Polyhedral vesicles with a large bending modulus of the membrane, such as a gel phase lipid membrane, were studied using a Brownian dynamics simulation. The vesicles exhibited various polyhedral morphologies such as tetrahedron and cube shapes. We clarified two types of line defects on the edges of the polyhedrons: cracks of both monolayers at the spontaneous curvature of the monolayer C0<0, and a crack of the inner monolayer at C0> or =0. The inner monolayer curved positively around the latter defect. Our results suggest that the polyhedral morphology is controlled by C0.
Noguchi
Hiroshi
H
Department of Theoretical Studies, Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan. noguchi@ims.ac.jp
D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D013696:Temperature
D008055:Lipids