Stability of branched tubular membrane structures

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Jung, Maike, Jung, Gerhard, Schmid, Friederike
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Jung, Maike
Jung, Gerhard
Schmid, Friederike
author_facet Jung, Maike
Jung, Gerhard
Schmid, Friederike
contents We study the energetics and stability of branched tubular membrane structures by computer simulations of a triangulated network model. We find that triple (Y-)junctions can be created and stabilized by applying mechanical forces, if the angle between branches is 120 o . The same holds for tetrahedral junctions with tetraeder angles. If the wrong angles are enforced, the branches coalesce to a linear structure, a pure tube. After releasing the mechanical force, Y-branched structures remain metastable if one constrains the enclosed volume and the average curvature (the area difference) to a fixed value; tetrahedral junctions however split up into two Y-junctions. Somewhat counterintuitively, the energy cost of adding a Y-branch is negative in structures with fixed surface area and tube diameter, even if one accounts for the positive contribution of the additional branch end. For fixed average curvature, however, adding a branch also enforces a thinning of tubes, therefore the overall curvature energy cost is positive. Possible implications for the stability of branched networks structures in cells are discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_07596
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stability of branched tubular membrane structures
Jung, Maike
Jung, Gerhard
Schmid, Friederike
Biological Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
We study the energetics and stability of branched tubular membrane structures by computer simulations of a triangulated network model. We find that triple (Y-)junctions can be created and stabilized by applying mechanical forces, if the angle between branches is 120 o . The same holds for tetrahedral junctions with tetraeder angles. If the wrong angles are enforced, the branches coalesce to a linear structure, a pure tube. After releasing the mechanical force, Y-branched structures remain metastable if one constrains the enclosed volume and the average curvature (the area difference) to a fixed value; tetrahedral junctions however split up into two Y-junctions. Somewhat counterintuitively, the energy cost of adding a Y-branch is negative in structures with fixed surface area and tube diameter, even if one accounts for the positive contribution of the additional branch end. For fixed average curvature, however, adding a branch also enforces a thinning of tubes, therefore the overall curvature energy cost is positive. Possible implications for the stability of branched networks structures in cells are discussed.
title Stability of branched tubular membrane structures
topic Biological Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.07596