Adsorption-induced vesicle fission.
A theoretical model for vesicle fission induced by particle adsorption and aggregation on a membrane surface is presented. The bulk fluid contains particles that are adsorbed reversibly to the membrane. Adsorbed particles aggregate on the membrane, forming particle-rich domains. Domains at a critical size which contains nv particles become vesicles and leave the membrane. We find that for parameters that correspond to typical experimental situations, vesicle formation is energetically favored except for a possible energy barrier for domain nucleation at small n, where n is the number of particles in a domain. We also find that in typical experimental situations a particle-rich domain grows without being affected strongly by neighboring domains, and the vesicle formation rate is proportional to adsorption rate jon when jon is large; when jon is small the vesicle formation rate scales like jon2. Because the diffusion flux is small for domains with small in-plane radius Rn, in the time-independent state the densities of domains with n/nv<<1 and 1-n/nv<<1 are large.
Tsai
Feng-Ching
FC
Department of Physics, Institute of Biophysics, and Center for Complex Systems, National Central University, Jhongli, 32001 Taiwan.
Chen
Hsuan-Yi
HY
D000327:Adsorption; D002455:Cell Division; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D002477:Cells / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007700:Kinetics; D015388:Organelles / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013816:Thermodynamics