Noisy cell membranes

Could membranes be a kind of tin can telephone for the cell? Dimj/Shutterstock.com
Biological membranes are essential for any form of life. They are the wrapping for the precious molecules of life inside the cell. Membranes also contain many important molecules themselves, such as lipids arranging as a bilayer and proteins embedding into such bilayer, which allows tightly controlled information exchange with the outside.
Cells and thus their membranes are constantly pushed and pulled by their neighboring cells, while cells divide, communicate, move, or die.
Researchers have long been wondering whether such poking mechanical forces could propagate along the membrane just like sound waves.
In a recent study, Camilo Aponte-Santamaría from the University of los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and Jan Brunken and Frauke Gräter from the Molecular Biomechanics group at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Germany, used computer simulations to demonstrate that mechanical pulses propagate through membranes at very high speeds of kilometer per second comparable to the speed of sound.
Chasing these fast, noisy and tiny pulses in the computer has been a particular challenge for researchers so far. Aponte-Santamaría, Brunken, and Gräter therefore developed tailor-made Force Distribution Analysis.
This analysis allowed to find out that a pulse can travel for tens of nanometers so that it reaches many biomolecules embedded in the membrane within as little as one millionth of one millionth of a second, before attenuation.
Rapid information transfer across cells is vital for the inner workings of our tissues, from brain to muscle. The researchers think that the traveling of pulses through membranes could be a kind of tin can telephone for the cell. The actual nature and role of such ultrafast information transfer, however, remains to be tested in future experimental studies.
Publication: Camilo Aponte-Santamaría, Jan Brunken, and Frauke Gräter. Stress propagation through biological lipid bilayers in silico. JACS communication. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b04724. (2017).
Scientific Contact:
Dr. Camilo Aponte-Santamaría
Group Leader
Max Planck Tandem Group in Computational Biophysics
Universidad de los Andes
Bogotá, Colombia
E-mail: ca.aponte@uniandes.edu.co
Prof. Dr. Frauke Gräter
Group Leader „Molecular Biomechanics“
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
Schloß-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35
69118 Heidelberg, Germany
E-mail: frauke.graeter@h-its.org
Press Contact:
Dr. Peter Saueressig
Head of Communications
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)
Phone: +49 6221 533 245
peter.saueressig@h-its.org
About HITS
The Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) was established in 2010 by the physicist and SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira (1940-2015) and the Klaus Tschira Foundation as a private, non-profit research institute. HITS conducts basic research in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science, with a focus on the processing, structuring, and analyzing of large amounts of complex data and the development of computational methods and software. The research fields range from molecular biology to astrophysics. The shareholders of HITS are the HITS Stiftung, which is a subsidiary of the Klaus Tschira Foundation, Heidelberg University and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). HITS also cooperates with other universities and research institutes and with industrial partners. The base funding of HITS is provided by the HITS Stiftung with funds received from the Klaus Tschira Foundation. The primary external funding agencies are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the European Union.
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.h-its.org/All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry
Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.
Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.
Newest articles

Using Electroencephalography to Improve Language Disorder Treatments
Researchers work towards an inexpensive and portable solution for treating aphasia Electroencephalography (EEG) may offer a more accessible alternative to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for guiding transcranial direct current…

Measuring Life on Earth from Space: A Global Research Project
Measurements and data collected from space can be used to better understand life on Earth. An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by UC Merced civil and…

Best Approach for Stroke in Medium-Sized Blood Vessels Identified
Calgary’s Stroke Program advancing science to improve care, treatment and outcomes for patients University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute researchers with the Calgary Stroke Program at Foothills Medical Centre revolutionized…