title: Solvent-free coarse-grained lipid model for large-scale simulations.
abstract: A coarse-grained molecular model, which consists of a spherical particle and an orientation vector, is proposed to simulate lipid membrane on a large length scale. The solvent is implicitly represented by an effective attractive interaction between particles. A bilayer structure is formed by orientation-dependent (tilt and bending) potentials. In this model, the membrane properties (bending rigidity, line tension of membrane edge, area compression modulus, lateral diffusion coefficient, and flip-flop rate) can be varied over broad ranges. The stability of the bilayer membrane is investigated via droplet-vesicle transition. The rupture of the bilayer and worm-like micelle formation can be induced by an increase in the spontaneous curvature of the monolayer membrane.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Solid State Physics, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan. noguchi@issp.u-tokyo.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Noguchi
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008055:Lipids