Hydrodynamics of a single filament moving in a fluid spherical membrane

Abstract

Dynamic organization of the cytoskeletal filaments and rod-like proteins in the cell membrane and other biological interfaces occurs in many cellular processes. Previous modeling studies have considered the dynamics of a single rod on fluid planar membranes. We extend these studies to the more physiologically relevant case of a single filament moving in a spherical membrane. Specifically, we use a slender-body formulation to compute the translational and rotational resistance of a single filament of length $L$ moving in a membrane of radius $R$ and 2D viscosity $\eta_m$, and surrounded on its interior and exterior with Newtonian fluids of viscosities $\eta^{-}$ and $\eta^{+}$. We first discuss the case where the filament's curvature is at its minimum $\kappa=1/R$. We show that the boundedness of spherical geometry gives rise to flow confinement effects that increase in strength with increasing the ratio of filament's length to membrane radius $L/R$. These confinement flows only result in a mild increase in filament's resistance along its axis, $\xi_{\parallel}$, and its rotational resistance, $\xi_{\Omega}$. As a result, our predictions of $\xi_\parallel$ and $\xi_{\Omega}$ can be quantitatively mapped to the results on a planar membrane. In contrast, we find that the drag in perpendicular direction, $\xi_\perp$, increases superlinearly with the filament's length, when $L/R >1$ and ultimately $\xi_\perp \to \infty$ as $L/R \to \pi$. Next, we consider the effect of the filament's curvature, $\kappa$, on its parallel motion, while fixing the membrane's radius. We show that the flow around the filament becomes increasingly more asymmetric with increasing its curvature. These flow asymmetries induce a net torque on the filament, coupling its parallel and rotational dynamics. This coupling becomes stronger with increasing $L/R$ and $\kappa$.