Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 82: Membranes and Vesicles II (joint session BP/CPP)
CPP 82.8: Talk
Friday, March 16, 2018, 11:30–11:45, H 2013
Osmotic instabilities and organelle biogenesis — •Sami Al-Izzi1,2, George Rowlands2, Pierre Sens1, and Matthew Turner2 — 1Institut Curie (UMR 168), Paris, France — 2University of Warwick, Coventry, Uk
We study theoretically a membrane tube with unidirectional ion pumps driving an osmotic pressure difference. A pressure driven peristaltic instability is identified, quantitatively distinct from similar tension-driven Rayleigh type instabilities on membrane tubes. We discuss how this instability could be related to the function and biogenesis of membrane bound organelles, in particular the contractile vacuole complex found in protists. The unusually long natural wavelength of this instability is in close agreement with that observed in cells. We also consider extensions of this result to more complex/realistic systems.