Real-time dynamics of carbon nanotube porins in supported lipid membranes visualized by high-speed atomic force microscopy

In-plane mobility of proteins in lipid membranes is one of the fundamental mechanisms supporting biological functionality. Here we use high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) to show that a novel type of biomimetic channel-carbon nanotube porins (CNTPs)-is also laterally mobile in supported lipid membranes, mimicking biological protein behaviour. HS-AFM can capture real-time dynamics of CNTP motion in the supported lipid bilayer membrane, build long-term trajectories of the CNTP motion and determine the diffusion coefficients associated with this motion. Our analysis shows that diffusion coefficients of CNTPs fall into the same range as those of proteins in supported lipid membranes. CNTPs in HS-AFM experiments often exhibit 'directed' diffusion behaviour, which is common for proteins in live cell membranes.This article is part of the themed issue 'Membrane pores: from structure and assembly, to medicine and technology'.

Structure and Dynamics of Confined Alcohol-Water Mixtures

The effect of confinement between mica and graphene on the structure and dynamics of alcohol-water mixtures has been studied in situ and in real time at the molecular level by atomic force microscopy (AFM) at room temperature. AFM images reveal that the adsorbed molecules are segregated into faceted alcohol-rich islands on top of an ice layer on mica, surrounded by a pre-existing multilayer water-rich film. These faceted islands are in direct contact with the graphene surface, revealing a preferred adsorption site. Moreover, alcohol adsorption at low relative humidity (RH) reveals a strong preference of the alcohol molecules for the ordered ice interface. The growth dynamics of the alcohol islands is governed by supersaturation, temperature, the free energy of attachment of molecules to the island edge and two-dimensional (2D) diffusion. The measured diffusion coefficients display a size dependence on the molecular size of the alcohols, and are about 6 orders of magnitude smaller than the bulk diffusion coefficients, demonstrating the effect of confinement on the behavior of the alcohols. These experimental results provide new insights into the behavior of multicomponent fluids in confined geometries, which is of paramount importance in nanofluidics and biology.

Electrostatic field effects on membrane domain segregation and on lateral diffusion

Natural membranes are organized structures of neutral and charged molecules bearing dipole moments which generate local non-homogeneous electric fields. When subjected to such fields, the molecules experience net forces that can modify the lipid and protein organization, thus modulating cell activities and influencing (or even dominating) the biological functions. The energetics of electrostatic interactions in membranes is a long-range effect which can vary over distance within r^-1 to r^-3. In the case of a dipole interacting with a plane of dipoles, e.g. a protein interacting with a lipid domain, the interaction is stronger than two punctual dipoles and depends on the size of the domain. In this article, we review several contributions on how electrostatic interactions in the membrane plane can modulate the phase behavior, surface topography and mechanical properties in monolayers and bilayers.