Dynamics of membranes with immobile inclusions

Abstract

Cell membranes are anchored to the cytoskeleton via immobile inclusions. We investigate the effect of such anchors on the in-plane dynamics of a fluid membrane and mobile inclusions (proteins) embedded in it. The immobile particles lead to a decreased diffusion coefficient of mobile ones and suppress the correlated diffusion of particle pairs. Due to the long-range, quasi-two-dimensional nature of membrane flows, these effects become significant at a low area fraction (below one percent) of immobile inclusions.