Bi-Phasic Vesicles: instability induced by adsorption of proteins

Abstract

The recent discovery of a lateral organization in cell membranes due to small structures called 'rafts' has motivated a lot of biological and physico-chemical studies. A new experiment on a model system has shown a spectacular budding process with the expulsion of one or two rafts when one introduces proteins on the membrane. In this paper, we give a physical interpretation of the budding of the raft phase. An approach based on the energy of the system including the presence of proteins is used to derive a shape equation and to study possible instabilities. This model shows two different situations which are strongly dependent on the nature of the proteins: a regime of easy budding when the proteins are strongly coupled to the membrane and a regime of difficult budding.