https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-024-01367-0
Review
The troubles with the membrane domains
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5730, Odense, Denmark
Received:
20
August
2024
Accepted:
7
October
2024
Published online:
31
October
2024
The lateral organization of biological membranes has been subject to continuing discussions for more than 60 years. In the 1960s, the ultrastructure of membranes was revealed by electron microscopy, and in the 1970–1980s, the physical basis for the lateral organization of membranes, while from the 1990s, the cell biological role of the lateral membrane domains took off. There has at no point in this long history of observations and physical or cell biological modeling of membrane domains been consensus about the nature of the phenomena. Much insight has been gained from studies of simple model membranes where we find the principles of mechanics and thermodynamics applicable, while an extension of these results to complex biological membranes are still awaiting. This mini-review aims at illuminating some basic physics aspects of membrane cooperative behavior, which severely complicates the discussion of the lateral organization of biological membranes.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
