Flexible-to-semiflexible chain crossover on the pressure-area isotherm of a lipid bilayer

Abstract

We find theoretically that competition between ∼Kfq4 and ∼Qq2 terms in the Fourier-transformed conformational energy of a single-lipid chain, in combination with interchain entropic repulsion in the hydrophobic part of the lipid (bi)layer, may cause a crossover on the bilayer pressure-area isotherm P(A)∼(A−A0)−α. The crossover manifests itself in the transition from α = 5/3 to α = 3. Our microscopic model represents a single-lipid molecule as a worm-like chain with a finite irreducible cross-section area A0, a flexural rigidity Kf, and a stretching modulus Q in a parabolic potential with the self-consistent curvature B(A) formed by entropic interactions between hydrocarbon chains in the lipid layer. The crossover area A* obeys the relation Q/√KfB(A*) ≈ 2. We predict a peculiar possibility of deducing the effective elastic moduli Kf and Q of an individual hydrocarbon chain from the analysis of the isotherm with such a crossover. Also calculated is the crossover-related behavior of the area compressibility modulus KA, the equilibrium area per lipid At, and the chain order parameter S(θ).