Polarized deformations: response of giant unilamellar vesicles to osmotic deflation under confinement

Abstract

Membranes are dynamic features of living cells that undergo continuous changes to facilitate many cellular functions including but not limited to motility, cell division, and phagocytosis. Although many of these processes are protein-assisted, functionality can also emerge through simple physical stresses and perturbations coupled with ability of the cellular membrane to regulate their area. This remarkable property of surface area homeostasis, which buffers membrane tension, is often achieved through strikingly simple and chemically non-specific physical-processes such as (1) folding, which traffics molecules with the contiguous end-membrane system; (2) endocytosis, which lowers the surface area; and (3) exocytosis, which expands it.