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Locally mapping the nanoscale viscoelastic properties of fluid biomembranes: molecular mobility and spatial correlation [dataset] Open Access

Biological membranes are intrinsically dynamic entities that continually adapt their biophysical properties and molecular organisation to support cellular function. Current microscopy techniques can derive high-resolution structural information of labelled molecules but quantifying the associated viscoelastic behaviour with nanometre precision remains challenging. Here, we develop an approach based on atomic force microscopy in conjunction with ultrafast nanoactuators to map the viscoelastic response of unlabelled supported membranes with nanometre spatial resolution. On fluid membranes, we show that the method can quantify local variations in the molecular mobility of the lipids and derive a diffusion coefficient. We confirm our experimental approach with molecular dynamics simulations, also highlighting the role played by the water at the interface with the membrane on the measurement. Probing ternary model bilayers reveals spatial correlations in the local diffusion over distances of ~20 nm within liquid disordered domains. This lateral correlation is enhanced in native bovine lens membranes where the inclusion of protein-rich domains induces four-fold variations in the diffusion coefficient across <100 nm of the fluid regions, consistent with biological function. Our findings suggest that diffusion is highly localised in fluid biomembranes.

Descriptions

Resource type

Dataset

Contributors

Creator: Voïtchovsky, Kislon ¹
Trewby, William ²
Tavakol, Mahdi ³

¹ Durham University, UK
² University College London, UK
³ University of Oxford, UK

Funder

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Durham Physics Developing Talent Award

Research methods

Atomic Force Microscopy, Computer simulations

Other description

Keyword

Nanorheology
Lipid membranes
Atomic force microscopy
Molecular dynamics simulations
Biomembranes

Subject

Membranes (Biology)--Fluidity

Location

Language

Cited in

Identifier

ark:/32150/r19z902z92v
doi:10.15128/r19z902z92v

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY)

Publisher

Durham University

Date Created

File Details

Depositor

K.D. Voitchovsky

Date Uploaded

24 February 2025, 13:02:05

Date Modified

26 February 2025, 10:02:09

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Characterization

File format: zip (ZIP Format)

Mime type: application/zip

File size: 16475697318

Last modified: 2025:02:25 17:35:43+00:00

Filename: ResearchData.zip

Original checksum: 7f161bf218f7abf0805e94475e074b40