title: Line active molecules promote inhomogeneous structures in membranes: theory, simulations and experiments.
abstract: We review recent theoretical efforts that predict how line-active molecules can promote lateral heterogeneities (or domains) in model membranes. This fundamental understanding may be relevant to membrane composition in living cells, where it is thought that small domains, called lipid rafts, are necessary for the cells to be functional. The theoretical work reviewed here ranges in scale from coarse grained continuum models to nearly atomistic models. The effect of line active molecules on domain sizes and shapes in the phase separated regime or on fluctuation length scales and lifetimes in the single phase, mixed regime, of the membrane is discussed. Recent experimental studies on model membranes that include line active molecules are also presented together with some comparisons with the theoretical predictions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel; Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 University, Montréal, Québec H3A 2T8, Canada.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Palmieri
authors.affiliation: Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics China, Zhong Guan Cun East Street 55, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1200 California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Brewster
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. Electronic address: sam.safran@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Safran
keywords: Linactants; Lipid rafts; Model membranes; Nanodomains