How do lipid molecules in membranes perform a flip-flop? The flip-flops of lipid molecules play a crucial role in the formation and flexibility of membranes. However, little has been determined about the behavior of flip-flops, either experimentally, or in molecular dynamics simulations. Here, we provide numerical results of the flip-flops of model lipid molecules in a model membrane and investigate the statistical properties, using millisecond-order coarse-grained molecular simulations (dissipative particle dynamics). We find that there are three different ways of flip-flops, which can be clearly characterized by their paths on the free energy surface. Furthermore, we found that the probability of the number of the flip-flops is well fitted by the Poisson distribution, and the probability density function for the inter-occurrence times of flip-flops coincides with that of the forward recurrence times. These results indicate that the occurrence of flip-flops is a Poisson process, which will play an important role in the flexibilities of membranes.
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14 February 2014
Research Article|
February 10 2014
Poisson property of the occurrence of flip-flops in a model membrane
Noriyoshi Arai;
Noriyoshi Arai
1Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems,
University of Electro-Communications
, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
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Takuma Akimoto;
Takuma Akimoto
a)
2Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Keio University
, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan
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Eiji Yamamoto;
Eiji Yamamoto
2Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Keio University
, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan
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Masato Yasui;
Masato Yasui
3Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine,
Keio University
, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan
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Kenji Yasuoka
Kenji Yasuoka
2Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Keio University
, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan
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J. Chem. Phys. 140, 064901 (2014)
Article history
Received:
November 11 2013
Accepted:
January 07 2014
Citation
Noriyoshi Arai, Takuma Akimoto, Eiji Yamamoto, Masato Yasui, Kenji Yasuoka; Poisson property of the occurrence of flip-flops in a model membrane. J. Chem. Phys. 14 February 2014; 140 (6): 064901. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4863330
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