Langmuir 2010 Aug 03;2615:12659-66. doi: 10.1021/la1020143.

Phase diagrams for multi-component membrane vesicles: a coarse-grained modeling study.

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We develop a multicomponent membrane coarse-grained model in which the effects of spontaneous curvature and fluidity are included. This model is used to perform computer simulations to study the phase segregation, domain coarsening, budding and budding off of multicomponent membrane vesicles. Three types of phase diagram are presented with variation of composition, spontaneous curvature, and line tension (the unlike bond energy). Various phases have been observed, including, sphere, biconcave, starfish, capsule, budding, and budding off. Our simulations show that budding off occurs only when the size of a domain is larger than a critical value, and the critical condition is closely related to the spontaneous curvature and line tension. A continuum model is used to predict the critical condition for budding off. Quantitative comparisons are made between the present simulation results and the continuum model predictions, and good agreements have been achieved.

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