Clusters of proteins in bio-membranes: insights into the roles of\n interaction potential shapes and of protein diversity

Abstract

It has recently been proposed that proteins embedded in lipidic bio-membranes\ncan spontaneously self-organize into stable small clusters, or membrane\nnano-domains, due to the competition between short-range attractive and\nlonger-range repulsive forces between proteins, specific to these systems. In\nthis paper, we carry on our investigation, by Monte Carlo simulations, of\ndifferent aspects of cluster phases of proteins in bio-membranes. First, we\ncompare different long-range potentials (including notably three-body terms) to\ndemonstrate that the existence of cluster phases should be quite generic.\nFurthermore, a real membrane contains hundreds of different protein species\nthat are far from being randomly distributed in these nano-domains. We take\nthis protein diversity into account by modulating protein-protein interaction\npotentials both at short and longer range. We confirm theoretical predictions\nin terms of biological cluster specialization by deciphering how clusters\nrecruit only a few protein species. In this respect, we highlight that cluster\nphases can turn out to be an advantage at the biological level, for example by\nenhancing the cell response to external stimuli.\n