Liquid crystalline phenomena at the cell surface

Abstract

Studies of the cell surface in relation to liquid crystalline properties have demonstrated the existence, in the plasma membrane, of a smectic type of liquid crystal and below this, in the plasma gel of groups of microfibrils lying parallel to the membrane surface arranged similar to that observed in liquid crystals. Studies of the bulk properties of the surface have been made by a development of Thom's theory of catastrophies. This shows that most of the surface area behaves like an elastic gel. But certain regions undergo a gel-sol transformation and generate catastrophies of the type observed at a liquid surface. It has therefore been shown that the cell surface exhibits both liquid properties and also the presence of domains of orientated molecules and molecular aggregates.