A stalk fluid forming above the transition from the lamellar to the rhombohedral phase of lipid membranes
2021 | journal article. A publication with affiliation to the University of Göttingen.
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- Authors
- Scheu, Max; Komorowski, Karlo; Shen, Chen; Salditt, Tim
- Abstract
- In this work, we present evidence for the formation of transient stalks in aligned multilamellar stacks of lipid membranes. Just above the phase transition from the fluid ( 1029320L_\alpha1029320 L α ) lamellar phase to the rhombohedral phase (R), where lipid stalks crystallize on a super-lattice within the lipid bilayer stack, we observe a characteristic scattering pattern, which can be attributed to a correlated fluid of transient stalks. Excess (off-axis) diffuse scattering with a broad modulation around the position which later transforms to a sharp peak of the rhombohedral lattice, gives evidence for the stalk fluid forming as a pre-critical effect, reminiscent of critical phenomena in the vicinity of second-order phase transitions. Using high-resolution off-specular X-ray scattering and lineshape analysis we show that this pre-critical regime is accompanied by an anomalous elasticity behavior of the membrane stack, in particular an increase in inter-bilayer compressibility, i.e., a decrease in the compression modulus.
- Issue Date
- 2021
- Journal
- European Biophysics Journal
- ISSN
- 0175-7571
- eISSN
- 1432-1017
- Language
- English
- Sponsor
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659
Projekt DEAL