Coiling instability of multilamellar membrane tubes with anchored polymers- art. no. 031603

We study experimentally a coiling instability of cylindrical multilamellar stacks of phospholipid membranes, induced by polymers with hydrophobic anch ors grafted along their hydrophilic backbone. Our system is unique in that coils form in the absence of both twist and adhesion. We interpret our expe rimental results in terms of a model in which local membrane curvature and polymer concentration are coupled. The model predicts the occurrence of max imally tight coils above a threshold polymer occupancy. A proper comparison between the model and experiment involved imaging of projections from simu lated coiled tubes with maximal curvature and complicated torsions.