title: Suppressing membrane height fluctuations leads to a membrane-mediated interaction among proteins.
abstract: Membrane-induced interactions can play a significant role in the spatial distribution of membrane-bound proteins. We develop a model that combines a continuum description of lipid bilayers with a discrete particle model of proteins to probe the emerging structure of the combined membrane-protein system. Our model takes into account the membrane's elastic behavior, the steric repulsion between proteins, and the quenching of membrane shape fluctuations due to the presence of the proteins. We employ coupled Langevin equations to describe the dynamics of the system. We show that coupling to the membrane induces an attractive interaction among proteins, which may contribute to the clustering of proteins in biological membranes. We investigate the lateral protein diffusion and find that it is reduced due to transient fluctuations in membrane shape.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Kayla
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sapp
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maibaum
mesh_terms: D004058:Diffusion; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008566:Membranes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011485:Protein Binding
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008565:Membrane Proteins