The physics of active membranes

Ramaswamy, Sriram and Rao, Madan (2001) The physics of active membranes. In: Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences - Series IV - Physics, 2 (6). pp. 817-839.

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Abstract

We review recent work on the physical properties of model fluid membranes in nonequilibrium situations resembling those encountered in the living cell and contrast their properties with those of the more familiar membranes at thermal equilibrium. We survey models for the effect of (i) active pumps and (ii) active fission–fusion processes encountered in intracellular trafficking on the stability and fluctuations of fluid membranes. Our purpose is twofold: to highlight the exciting nonequilibrium phenomena that arise in biological systems, and to show how some crucial features of living systems, namely dissipative energy uptake and directed motion, can fruitfully be incorporated into physical models of biological interest.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences - Series IV - Physics
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Keywords:	biophysics;membranes;nonequilibrium fluctuations;active pumps;trafficking.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	02 Aug 2011 06:12
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2011 06:12
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/39642

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