Hao Wu, Hayato Shiba, Hiroshi Noguchi
The entropic effects of grafted polymers on biomembranes are studied using simulations of a meshless membrane model combined with anchored linear polymer chains. The bending rigidity and spontaneous curvature are investigated for grafted ideal and excluded-volume polymer chains. Our results agree with the previous theoretical predictions well. It is found that the polymer reduces the line tension of membrane edges, as well as the interfacial line tension between membrane domains, leading to microdomain formation. Instead of the mixing of two phases as seen in typical binary fluids, densely grafted polymers stabilize small domains. A mean field theory is proposed for the edge line tension reduced by grafting ideal chains, which well reproduces our simulation results.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4271
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