The steric repulsion between proteins on biological membranes is one of the most generic mechanisms that cause membrane shape changes. We present a minimal model where a spontaneous curvature is induced by steric repul- sion between membrane-associated proteins. Our results show that the interplay between the induced spontaneous curvature and the membrane tension determine the energy minimizing shapes, which describe the wide range of experimentally observed membrane shapes, i.e. flat membranes, spherical vesicles, elongated tubular protrusions, and pearling structures. Moreover, the model gives precise predictions on how membrane shape changes by protein crowding can be tuned by controlling the protein size, the density of proteins and the size of the crowded domain.

中文翻译：

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蛋白质拥挤引起的膜形状重塑

生物膜上蛋白质之间的空间排斥是引起膜形状改变的最通用机制之一。我们提出了一个最小的模型，其中膜相关蛋白之间的空间排斥诱导自发弯曲。我们的结果表明，诱导的自发曲率和膜张力之间的相互作用决定了能量最小化的形状，该形状描述了实验观察到的各种膜形状，即平坦的膜，球形囊泡，细长的管状突起和珠光结构。此外，该模型可以精确预测如何通过控制蛋白质大小，蛋白质密度和拥挤区域的大小来调节蛋白质拥挤引起的膜形状变化。