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High resolution membrane structures within hybrid lipid-polymer vesicles revealed by combining X-ray scattering and electron microscopy
Authors:
Rashmi
Seneviratne
(University of Leeds)
,
Georgina
Coates
(University of Leeds)
,
Zexi
Xu
(University of Leeds)
,
Caitlin E.
Cornell
(University of California, Berkeley)
,
Rebecca F.
Thompson
(University of Leeds)
,
Amin
Sadeghpour
(University of Leeds)
,
Daniel P.
Maskell
(University of Leeds)
,
Lars J. C.
Jeuken
(Leiden University)
,
Michael
Rappolt
(University of Leeds)
,
Paul A.
Beales
(University of Leeds)
Co-authored by industrial partner:
No
Type:
Journal Paper
Journal:
Small
, VOL 1863
State:
Published (Approved)
Published:
March 2023
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
19127
,
18027
Abstract: Hybrid vesicles consisting of phospholipids and block-copolymers are increasingly finding applications in science and technology. Herein, small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) are used to obtain detailed structural information about hybrid vesicles with different ratios of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and poly(1,2-butadiene-block-ethylene oxide) (PBd22-PEO14, Ms = 1800 g mol−1). Using single particle analysis (SPA) the authors are able to further interpret the information gained from SAXS and cryo-ET experiments, showing that increasing PBd22-PEO14 mole fraction increases the membrane thickness from 52 Å for a pure lipid system to 97 Å for pure PBd22-PEO14 vesicles. Two vesicle populations with different membrane thicknesses in hybrid vesicle samples are found. As these lipids and polymers are reported to homogeneously mix, bistability is inferred between weak and strong interdigitation regimes of PBd22-PEO14 within the hybrid membranes. It is hypothesized that membranes of intermediate structure are not energetically favorable. Therefore, each vesicle exists in one of these two membrane structures, which are assumed to have comparable free energies. The authors conclude that, by combining biophysical methods, accurate determination of the influence of composition on the structural properties of hybrid membranes is achieved, revealing that two distinct membranes structures can coexist in homogeneously mixed lipid-polymer hybrid vesicles.
Journal Keywords: block copolymers; cryo-electron tomography; hybrid vesicles; membrane structures; single particle analysis; small angle X-ray scattering
Subject Areas:
Materials,
Chemistry
Instruments:
I22-Small angle scattering & Diffraction
Added On:
03/03/2023 09:42
Discipline Tags:
Chemistry
Materials Science
Organic Chemistry
Polymer Science
Technical Tags:
Scattering
Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS)