title: Coarse-grained molecular simulations of membrane adhesion domains.
abstract: We use a coarse-grained molecular model of supported lipid bilayers to study the formation of adhesion domains. We find that this process is a first order phase transition, triggered by a combination of pairwise short range attractive interactions between the adhesion bonds and many-body Casimir-like interactions, mediated by the membrane thermal undulations. The simulation results display an excellent agreement with the recently proposed Weil-Farago two-dimensional lattice model, in which the occupied and empty sites represent, respectively, the adhesion bonds and unbound segments of the membrane. A second phase transition, into a hexatic phase, is observed when the attraction between the adhesion bonds is further strengthened.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben Gurion University, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Nadiv
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dharan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben Gurion University, Be'er Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Oded
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Farago
mesh_terms: D002448:Cell Adhesion; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry; D008563:Membrane Lipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D008566:Membranes / Q000737:chemistry*; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D044367:Phase Transition
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008563:Membrane Lipids