Spatiotemporal Pattern Formation in BioFluids I: Cell Shape Perturbants As Evidence of Spatially-Organised Membrane Flows

Abstract

I show the assumed Bilayer structure of cell membranes is Topologically falsified by known aminophospholipid dynamics in metabolically-active, Far from Equilibrium cells. The sensitivity of lipid and cytoplasmic flows to temperature, surfactants, viscosity and the gravity vector are used to suggest that rather than being random viscous fluids as currently assumed, both are actually spatially-organised by convective and shear driven mechanisms in vivo. I show how protein-lipid feedback provokes a Gestalt Shift in Cell Mechanics by demonstrating that the primary forces involved in shape changes are generated by bifurcations in fluid flow Topology, which induce affine deformations of the cytoskeletal lattice. The feedback model allows the transduction of Gravitational information into biological form, is universally applicable, and provides a rationale for Homeoviscous Adaptation, and the extensive lipid polymorphism observed in Nature.