Sprecher
Beschreibung
Wetting has been recently identified as physiologically important in fundamental cellular processes: phase-separated condensates (e.g., proteins and RNA) form liquid droplets in cells and interact with membranes, e.g., during autophagy in eukaryotic cells or protein storage in plant vacuoles. Upon contact, the droplets can exert wetting forces on the membrane that deforms. This creates a competition of mechanical forces of the membrane elasticity and the droplet capillarity, giving rise to elastocapillary phenomena. In this talk, I will present a minimal model system comprising giant lamellar vesicles (GUVs) filled with a phase-separating polymer system (PEG/Dextran). We create liquid-liquid interfaces inside GUVs by osmotic quenches, yielding deformed vesicles with excess membrane area. The excess membrane accumulates at the liquid-liquid interface and assumes differing morphologies, ranging from micro-tubules to sheets, to stomatocytes. We find that morphology transition depends on the liquid-liquid surface tension. Our results will help to explain resembling in vivo observations during the morphogenesis of protein storage vacuoles in plants.