Transmembrane electric potentials and membrane curvature have always provided pathways to mediate different cellular processes. We present results of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of lipid monolayer composed of 1, 2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) and cholesterol (CHOL) under a transverse electric field to monitor the effect of electric field on membrane containing ganglioside monosialo 1 (GM1). Four systems were studied with membrane monolayer in the presence and absence of GM1 with and without applying electric field along the normal of the monolayer. The applied transmembrane electric field was 0.4 mV/Å which corresponds to the action potential of animal cell. Our results indicate that the electric field induces a considerable lateral stress on the monolayer in the presence of GM1, which is evident from the lateral pressure profiles. It was found that due to the application of electric field major perturbation was caused to the system containing GM1, manifested by the bending of the monolayer. We believe this study provides correlation between electric field and spontaneous membrane bending, specially based on the membrane composition. The consequences of these MD simulations provide considerable insights to different biological phenomenon and lipid membrane models.

中文翻译：

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跨膜电场对含DMPC-胆固醇单层GM1的影响：计算研究。

跨膜电位和膜曲率始终提供了介导不同细胞过程的途径。我们介绍了在横向电场下监测由电场作用在膜上的脂质单分子层的分子动力学（MD）模拟结果，该分子由1，2-二肉豆蔻酰基-sn-甘油-3-磷酸胆碱（DMPC）和胆固醇（CHOL）组成含有神经节苷脂单唾液酸1（GM1）。在存在和不存在GM1的情况下，在有膜单层的情况下，沿膜的单层法线施加电场和不施加电场，对四个系统进行了研究。施加的跨膜电场为0.4 mV /Å，与动物细胞的动作电位相对应。我们的结果表明，在存在GM1的情况下，电场会在单层上引起相当大的侧向应力，从侧向压力曲线可以明显看出这一点。已经发现，由于施加电场，对包含GM1的系统造成了严重的扰动，这表现为单层弯曲。我们相信这项研究提供了电场与自发膜弯曲之间的相关性，特别是基于膜的成分。这些MD模拟的结果为不同的生物学现象和脂质膜模型提供了可观的见解。