Eur. Phys. J. E (2014) 37: 71
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2014-14071-8

Regular Article

Compositional redistribution and dynamic heterogeneity in mixed lipid membrane induced by polyelectrolyte adsorption: Effects of chain rigidity

¹ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 130022, Changchun, China
² Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, 65 Dudley Road, 08901, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

^* e-mail: tfshi@ciac.jl.cn

Received: 12 January 2014
Revised: 21 March 2014
Accepted: 7 July 2014
Published online: 22 August 2014

Abstract

Monte Carlo simulation is employed to investigate the interaction between a polyelectrolyte and a fluid mixed membrane containing neutral (phosphatidyl-choline, PC), monovalent anionic (phosphatidylserine, PS), and multivalent anionic (phosphatidylinositol, PIP₂) lipids. The effects of the intrinsic polyelectrolyte rigidity and solution ionic strength on the lateral rearrangement and dynamics of different anionic lipid species are systematically studied. Our results show that, the increase of polyelectrolyte chain rigidity reduces the loss of polyelectrolyte conformational entropy and the energy gains in electrostatic interaction, but raises the demixing entropy loss of the segregated anionic lipids. Therefore, the polyelectrolyte/membrane adsorption strength exhibits a non-monotonic dependence on the polyelectrolyte rigid parameter k _ang, and there exists a certain optimal k _ang for which the adsorption strength is maximal. Because the less loss of chain conformational entropy dominates the increase of the demixing entropy loss of the segregated anionic lipids and the decreases of the electrostatic energy gains, the semiflexible polyelectrolyte adsorbs onto the membrane more firmly than the flexible one. Whereas, for the adsorption of rigid polyelectrolyte, larger anionic lipid demixing entropy loss and less energy gain in the electrostatic interaction dominate over the decrease of the polyelectrolyte conformation entropy loss, leading to the desorption of the chain from the membrane. By decreasing the ionic concentration of the salt solution, the certain optimal k _ang shifts to larger values. The cooperative effects of the adsorbing polyelectrolyte beads determine the concentration gradients and hierarchical mobility of the bound anionic lipids, as well as the polyelectrolyte dynamics.