The deformation of
cell membranes couples with spatial distributions of membrane proteins
and
lipids. Current model membrane approaches studying curvature sensing
are limited to positive curvatures and often involve complex setups. To
overcome these challenges, solid- supported wavy membrane were
fabricated by a
combination of soft lithography and wet etching. We demonstrated that
endocytotic proteins and the protein cholera toxin show curvature
sorting on this engineered wavy membranes, whereas a control protein
(streptavidin) showed no sorting.
(Left) Surface topography and curvatures measured via AFM. (Right) Lipids and peripheral proteins on wavy membranes imaged via epi-fluorescence microscopy.
