Themed collection Remodelling of Biomembranes

Reinhard Lipowsky and Rumiana Dimova introduce the Soft Matter themed issue on remodeling of biomembranes.

Clarifying the diffusion dynamics of nanoscale objects with cell membrane is critical for revealing fundamental physics in biological systems. This perspective highlights the advances in computational and theoretical aspects of this emerging field.

We review current theoretical models for curvature sensing of BAR-domain proteins, test the models on 2 proteins, and present new electron microscopy data on the organization of BAR domains on tubes.

Cells can respond to signals generated by other cells that are remarkably far away.

Cellular membranes are anything but flat structures.

We review compositional models for analyzing small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering data of complex membrane mimics and live cells.

During each active oscillation cycle, the vesicle shape undergoes a symmetry-breaking transformation from an up-down symmetric to an up-down asymmetric dumbbell followed by the reverse symmetry-restoring transformation.

Using cell-mimetic dendrimersomes we demonstrated how changes in the molecular topology of the amphiphilic Janus dendrimers forming the bilayer lead to the evolution of shape without the need for any active cellular machinery.

Protein structure and curvature sensing for annexin A4 trimers are coupled. These findings may provide new insight for the mechanisms underlying plasma membrane repair.

Lipid membranes are ubiquitous biological organizers, required for structural and functional compartmentalization of the cell and sub-cellular organelles.

Reversible MgCl₂-induced blunt-end polymerization of membrane-bound straight DNA origami monomers into filaments leads to protruding deformations on freestanding lipid membranes.

Three-way junctions of membrane tubules are stabilized by particles generating membrane curvature opposite to the particles that induce the tubules.

We study the engulfment of solid particles by membranes with area reservoirs that are stabilized by large spontaneous curvature, and show that the properties of the reservoir can influence membrane remodelling processes.

In the cell, membrane deformation and fission (collectively referred to as ‘budding’) is driven by specific protein machineries but is also influenced by lipid composition.

A lipid vesicle exposed to an interior sucrose and an exterior glucose solution can attain a variety of multispherical shapes with different numbers of large and small spheres. For each shape, all spheres are connected by narrow membrane necks.

We analyze diffraction-limited filopodia of living cells to quantify negative curvature sensing and generation for two prototypic I-BAR domains.

Compression of membrane–actin cell mimics generates buckling and wrinkling depending on actin thickness.

Cellular membranes undergo remodeling during many cellular processes including endocytosis. Here we elucidated the functional role of the disordered domain in Amphiphysin1 by gradually truncating it, creating a family of mutant proteins.