Abstract
The proliferation of life on earth is based on the ability of single cells to divide into two daughter cells. During cell division, the plasma membrane undergoes a series of morphological transformations which ultimately lead to membrane fission. Here, we show that analogous remodeling processes can be induced by low densities of proteins bound to the membranes of cell-sized lipid vesicles. Using His-tagged fluorescent proteins, we are able to precisely control the spontaneous curvature of the vesicle membranes. By fine-tuning this curvature, we obtain dumbbell-shaped vesicles with closed membrane necks as well as neck fission and complete vesicle division. Our results demonstrate that the spontaneous curvature generates constriction forces around the membrane necks and that these forces can easily cover the force range found in vivo. Our approach involves only one species of membrane-bound proteins at low densities, thereby providing a simple and extendible module for bottom-up synthetic biology.
Highlights
The proliferation of life on earth is based on the ability of single cells to divide into two daughter cells
The green fluorescent proteins (GFPs)-induced fission is driven by constriction forces that are generated by the spontaneous curvature and are comparable in magnitude to those generated by protein complexes[4,5,6] in vivo
This mechanism does not depend on the precise nature of the molecular interactions that generate the spontaneous curvature of the giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) membranes as we demonstrate at the end by using Histagged iLid proteins rather than His-tagged GFP
Summary
The proliferation of life on earth is based on the ability of single cells to divide into two daughter cells. If we start from a quasi-spherical cell, the (apparent) volume-to-area ratio must first decrease, leading to shapes of lower symmetry, such as prolates, which eventually transform into dumbbells The latter shapes consist of two subcompartments connected by a narrow or closed membrane neck. The GFP-induced fission is driven by constriction forces that are generated by the spontaneous curvature and are comparable in magnitude to those generated by protein complexes[4,5,6] in vivo In this way, we reveal a simple and robust curvature-elastic mechanism for vesicle division. We reveal a simple and robust curvature-elastic mechanism for vesicle division
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