Electrostatics of non-neutral biological microdomains

Abstract

Voltage and charge distributions in cellular microdomains regulate communications, excitability, and signal transduction. We report here new electrical laws in a biological cell, which follow from a nonlinear electro-diffusion model. These newly discovered laws derive from the geometrical cell-membrane properties, such as membrane curvature, volume, and surface area. The electro-diffusion laws can now be used to predict and interpret voltage distribution in cellular microdomains such as synapses, dendritic spine, cilia and more.