Direct manipulation of liquid ordered lipid membrane domains using optical traps

• Published in: Communications chemistry 2019-01, Vol.2 (1), Article 6
• Main Authors: Friddin, Mark S., Bolognesi, Guido, Salehi-Reyhani, Ali, Ces, Oscar, Elani, Yuval
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 14/34; 639/638/440/56; 639/638/92/552; Biophysics; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Demixing; Domains; Lipids; Membranes; Miscibility; Optical traps; Vesicles
• ISSN: 2399-3669; 2399-3669
• DOI: 10.1038/s42004-018-0101-4

Multicomponent lipid bilayers can give rise to coexisting liquid domains that are thought to influence a host of cellular activities. There currently exists no method to directly manipulate such domains, hampering our understanding of their significance. Here we report a system that allows individual liquid ordered domains that exist in a liquid disordered matrix to be directly manipulated using optical tweezers. This allows us to drag domains across the membrane surface of giant vesicles that are adhered to a glass surface, enabling domain location to be defined with spatiotemporal control. We can also use the laser to select individual vesicles in a population to undergo mixing/demixing by locally heating the membrane through the miscibility transition, demonstrating a further layer of control. This technology has potential as a tool to shed light on domain biophysics, on their role in biology, and in sculpting membrane assemblies with user-defined membrane patterning. Liquid domains can coexist within lipid membranes, and directly manipulating them in situ may offer a useful tool. Here optical tweezers are used to directly move liquid-ordered domains within the lipid bilayers of individual giant vesicles.