Lipid Clustering Correlates with Membrane Curvature as Revealed by Molecular Simulations of Complex Lipid Bilayers
Figure 3
Lipid organization within a protein containing plasma membrane model after of 5 µs of simulation.
(A+B) End state of simulations of a 1900 lipid plasma membrane containing sixteen membrane-spanning gp130 receptor proteins. The proteins are colored in different colors and represented by surfaces. The proteins were originally distributed on an evenly spaces grid with 60 Å between proteins. (A) Upper leaflet after 5 µs of simulations time. Proteins are shown in different colors and GM3 is shown in magenta spheres, while the rest of the lipids are shown in gray. (B) Inner leaflet after 5 µs of simulations. PIP2 is shown in yellow spheres and blue spheres illustrate sodium ions within 5 Å of PIP2. (C) Radial distribution functions of lipids around the protein.