The membrane bending modulus in experiments and simulations: A puzzling picture

Description

The bending modulus is one of the most important material properties of lipid membranes, playing an important role in a number of biological processes including exo- and endocytosis, vesicle fusion, and the regulation of membrane protein activity. Different experimental techniques have been developed to estimate the bending modulus of simple lipid membranes, but unfortunately they provide different results for the same lipid membranes in very similar conditions. Similar issues have been found in simulations, where different methods (and different energetic models) provide different results. In this review, we collect results from both experiments and simulations, and discuss possible reasons for the discrepancies among different techniques.

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