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Lateral dynamics of charged lipids and peripheral proteins in spatially heterogeneous membranes: Comparison of continuous and Monte Carlo approaches.
- Source :
-
Journal of Chemical Physics . 10/21/2011, Vol. 135 Issue 15, p155103. 9p. 1 Diagram, 5 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- Biological membranes are complex environments whose physico-chemical properties are of utmost importance for the understanding of many crucial biological processes. Much attention has been given in the literature to the description of membranes along the z-axis perpendicular to the membrane. Here, we instead consider the lateral dynamics of lipids and peripheral proteins due to their electrostatic interaction. Previously, we constructed a Monte Carlo automaton capable of simulating mutual diffusive dynamics of charged lipids and associated positively charged peptides. Here, we derive and numerically analyze a system of Poisson-Boltzmann-Nernst-Planck (PBNP) equations that provide a mean-field approximation compatible with our Monte Carlo model. The thorough comparison between the mean-field PBNP equations and Monte Carlo simulations demonstrates that both the approaches are in a good qualitative agreement in all tested scenarios. We find that the two methods quantitatively deviate when the local charge density is high, presumably because the Poisson-Boltzmann formalism is applicable in the so-called weak coupling limit, whose validity is restricted to low charge densities. Nevertheless, we conclude that the mean-field PBNP approach provides a good approximation for the considerably more detailed Monte Carlo model at only a fraction of the associated computational cost and allows simulation of the membrane lateral dynamics on the space and time scales relevant for the realistic biological problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00219606
- Volume :
- 135
- Issue :
- 15
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Chemical Physics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 66715524
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3652958