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Pearling Instabilities of Membrane Tubes with Anchored Polymers

Ilan Tsafrir·Dror Sagi·Tamar Arzi·Marie-Alice Guedeau-Boudeville·Vidar Frette·Daniel Kandel·Joel Stavans
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Abstract

We have studied the pearling instability induced on hollow tubular lipid vesicles by hydrophilic polymers with hydrophobic side groups along the backbone. The results show that the polymer concentration is coupled to local membrane curvature. The relaxation of a pearled tube is characterized by two different well-separated time scales, indicating two physical mechanisms. We present a model, which explains the observed phenomena and predicts polymer segregation according to local membrane curvature at late stages.

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Ilan Tsafrir, Dror Sagi, Tamar Arzi, Marie-Alice Guedeau-Boudeville, Vidar Frette, Daniel Kandel, Joel Stavans. 2000-10-02. Pearling Instabilities of Membrane Tubes with Anchored Polymers. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.86.1138

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