Critical Casimir Forces in Cellular Membranes

Benjamin B. Machta, Sarah L. Veatch, and James P. Sethna
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 138101 – Published 24 September 2012

Abstract

Recent experiments suggest that membranes of living cells are tuned close to a miscibility critical point in the two-dimensional Ising universality class. We propose that one role for this proximity to criticality in live cells is to provide a conduit for relatively long-range critical Casimir forces. Using techniques from conformal field theory we calculate potentials of mean force between membrane bound inclusions mediated by their local interactions with the composition order parameter. We verify these calculations using Monte Carlo simulations where we also compare critical and off-critical results. Our findings suggest that membrane bound proteins experience weak yet long-range forces mediated by critical composition fluctuations in the plasma membranes of living cells.

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  • Received 14 March 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.138101

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Benjamin B. Machta1, Sarah L. Veatch2, and James P. Sethna1

  • 1Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA
  • 2Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

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Issue

Vol. 109, Iss. 13 — 28 September 2012

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