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Cited by 54Lipid Membrane Structure and BehaviorMicrobial Inactivation MethodsNanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies

Metastable Prepores in Tension-Free Lipid Bilayers

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Ting, Christina L., Awasthi, Neha, Müller, Marcus, Hub, Jochen S.·2018·Physical Review Letters
DOI 10.1103/physrevlett.120.128103
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Abstract

The formation and closure of aqueous pores in lipid bilayers is a key step in various biophysical processes. Large pores are well described by classical nucleation theory, but the free-energy landscape of small, biologically relevant pores has remained largely unexplored. The existence of small and metastable "prepores" was hypothesized decades ago from electroporation experiments, but resolving metastable prepores from theoretical models remained challenging. Using two complementary methods-atomistic simulations and self-consistent field theory of a minimal lipid model-we determine the parameters for which metastable prepores occur in lipid membranes. Both methods consistently suggest that pore metastability depends on the relative volume ratio between the lipid head group and lipid tails: lipids with a larger head-group volume fraction (or shorter saturated tails) form metastable prepores, whereas lipids with a smaller head-group volume fraction (or longer unsaturated tails) form unstable prepores.

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  • Electropores may form under external electric fields and can also arise spontaneously in naturally occurring systems due to transient transmembrane potentials arising from bilayer-surface charge fluctuations.

    “Electropores may form under external electric fields 9 and can also arise spontaneously in naturallyoccuring (particularly biological) systems due to transient transmembrane potentials arising from bilayer-surface charge flucuations 8,12,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] .”

    From Fusion of lipid membranes: an alternative pathway (2026) · cites this paper as [28]

    The introductory passage labeled Abstract (page unavailable) describes pore formation in natural cellular processes and pores induced by electric pulses. It does not say that spontaneous electropores in biological systems result from transient transmembrane potentials caused by bilayer-surface charge fluctuations; that mechanism is unsupported by this source. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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Authors
Ting, C. L., Awasthi, N., Müller, M., & Hub, J. S.
Affiliations
  • Sandia National Laboratories (US)
  • University of Göttingen (DE)
ORCID
Venue
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Published
2018-03-23
Volume
120
Issue
12
Pages
128103-128103
ISSN
  • 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
  • 1079-7114
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.120.128103
OpenAlex
W2794415244
Cited by
54
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2
FWCI
2.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • GoeScholar The Publication Server of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
  • Sandia National Laboratories
  • Laboratory Directed Research and Development
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DE-NA0003525)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (937/A07, 803/A12, HU 1971/1-1, HU 1971/4-1)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Microbial Inactivation Methods
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies
Keywords
lipid bilayers, aqueous pores, pore formation, pore closure, free energy landscape, electroporation, lipid tail length, self-consistent field theory, atomistic simulation
MeSH terms
Cell Membrane Permeability, Computer Simulation, Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine, Lipid Bilayers, Membrane Lipids, Models, Biological, Models, Chemical, Models, Molecular, Phosphatidylcholines, Stress, Physiological, Porosity, Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions

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