Budding Dynamics of Individual Domains in Multicomponent Membranes Simulated by N-Varied Dissipative Particle Dynamics

Abstract

We study the budding dynamics of individual domains in flat, multicomponent membranes using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations with varied bead number N, in which addition and deletion of beads based on their density at the membrane boundary is introduced. The budding process of a tubular bud, accompanied by a dynamical transition reflected in the energy and morphology evolutions, is investigated. The simulations show that budding duration is shortened with increasing line tension and depends on the domain size quadratically. At low line tension, increasing bending modulus accelerates budding at first, but suppresses the process as it increases further. In addition, the controlling role of the surface tension in the budding process is also explored. Finally, we use the N-varied DPD to simulate the experimentally observed multicomponent tubular vesicles, and the three bud growth modes are confirmed.