< Back to Article

Entropic Tension in Crowded Membranes

Figure 4

Mechanisms for different excluded area for proteins and lipids.

One difference between the hard disk model of membrane proteins (A), and more complex protein structures (B,C) might be thought of in terms of different effective radii and for steric exclusion of surrounding proteins and lipids respectively. A protein (red) with a large domain outside of the bilayer (B) might exclude surrounding proteins, but not lipids, from approaching the transmembrane domain (dark red). Similarly, proteins with different hydrophobic thickness than the surrounding bilayer (C) generate a local zone of deformed lipid bilayer (gray) that effectively excludes other well-matched proteins. Horizontal lines indicate the surrounding lipid bilayer.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002431.g004