Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

3754

Date

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Physics

Concentration

Materials Science

Committee Chair

Mohamed Laradji

Committee Member

Sanjay Mishra

Committee Member

Prabhakar Pradhan

Abstract

The phase behavior of lipid membrane next to solid substrates isinvestigated numerically using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse- grained implicit-solvent model. We particularly investigated the effect of the strength of the adhesion of the lipids on the substrate on the gel-fluid phase transition. The behavior of the proximal leaflet of the lipid bilayer can be dramatically different from that of the distal leaflet, particularly for large adhesion strengths. In the gel phase, the lipids of the proximal leaflet are uniformly in the gel phase while the lipids of the distal leaflet are spatially distributed in coexisting gel and fluid domains. We have shown that the difference in the behavior of the two leaflets is due to the difference in their lipid densities. The different lipid densities are the result of enhanced lipid translocation from the distal leaflet to the proximal leaflet due to the attractive substrate.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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