title: Ordered stacking of F-actin layers and mixed lipid bilayers: a columnar liquid crystal.
abstract: In this Letter, we show how the grooved helical structure of actin microfilaments (F-actin) interacting with mixed fluid lipid bilayers leads to handedness-independent 1D lipid bilayer undulations coupled to longitudinal in-plane ordering of the microfilaments. This longitudinal ordering is forced by the emerging in-plane compression and curvature energy terms of the straight 1D bilayer undulation wave fronts. Thereby, adjacent helices are set into registry along their long axis in their monolayer and π shifted between adjacent monolayers. An ordered composite multilamellar structure emerges by alternate stacking of these lipid bilayers and monolayers of F-actin. This two-dimensionally ordered system has the symmetries of a centered rectangular columnar liquid crystal, the straight 1D wave fronts playing the role of the classical molecular columns.
authors.affiliation: Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada H3C3J7.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caillé
authors.affiliation: Institut Physique de Rennes, UMR 6251 CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Artzner
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physico-chimie, UMR 168 CNRS, Institut Curie, 75248 Paris Cedex 04, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Amblard
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry; D000199:Actins / Q000737:chemistry*; D007700:Kinetics; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D008051:Lipid Bilayers