Mobile and Immobile Obstacles in Supported Lipid Bilayer Systems and Their Effect on Lipid Mobility

Abstract

Diffusion and immobilization of molecules in biomembranes are essential for life. Understanding it is crucial for biomimetic approaches where well-defined substrates are created for live cell assays or biomaterial development. Here, we present biomimetic model systems consisting of a supported lipid bilayer and membrane coupled proteins to study the influence of lipid–lipid and lipid–protein interactions on membrane mobility. To characterize the diffusion of lipids or proteins, the continuous photobleaching technique is used. Either Neutravidin coupled to DOPE-cap-Biotin lipids or GFP coupled to DOGS-NTA lipids is studied at 0.005–0.5 mol% concentration of the linker lipid. Neutravidin creates mobile obstacles in the membrane, while GFP coupling results in immobile obstacles. By actin filament coupling to Neutravidin-lipid complexes, obstacles are crosslinked, resulting in lipid mobility reduction along with the appearance of a membrane texture. Theoretical considerations accurately describe lipid diffusion changes at high obstacle concentration as a function of obstacle size and viscous effects. The mobility of membrane lipids depends on the concentration of protein-binding lipids and on the concentration and charge of the coupled protein. Next to diffusion and friction coefficients, we determine the effective obstacle size as well as a charge-dependent effect that dominates the decrease in lipid mobility.