Elastic response of bilayers with intrinsic proteins

Abstract

Intrinsic membrane proteins affect the ordering of neighbouring lipid chains. We have used a model of protein-lipid interactions in bilayers proposed by Owicki et al. (Owicki, J.C., Springgate, M.W. and McConnell, H.M. (1978) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75, 1616–1619) to show that near the lipid phase transition this effect may significantly increase the magnitude of a membrane's lateral compressibility (or correspondingly, decrease the magnitude of the membrane's elastic moduli).