Patterning of multicomponent elastic shells by gaussian curvature

Curt Waltmann, Ahis Shrestha, Monica Olvera De La Cruz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recent findings suggest that shell protein distribution and the morphology of bacterial microcompartments regulate the chemical fluxes facilitating reactions which dictate their biological function. We explore how the morphology and component patterning are coupled through the competition of mean and gaussian bending energies in multicomponent elastic shells that form three-component irregular polyhedra. We observe two softer components with lower bending rigidities allocated on the edges and vertices while the harder component occupies the faces. When subjected to a nonzero interfacial line tension, the two softer components further separate and pattern into subdomains that are mediated by the gaussian curvature. We find that this degree of fractionation is maximized when there is a weaker line tension and when the ratio of bending rigidities between the two softer domains ≈2. Our results reveal a patterning mechanism in multicomponent shells that can capture the observed morphologies of bacterial microcompartments, and moreover, can be realized in synthetic vesicles.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number054409
JournalPhysical Review E
Volume109
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2024

Funding

CW was funded by the Northwestern University Nicholson Fellowship. AS was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-FG02-08ER46539. MOdlC thanks the computational support of the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. CW, AS, and MOdlC acknowledge the support of the Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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