Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of symbols
- Chapter 1 Introduction to the cell
- Part I Rods and ropes
- Part II Membranes
- Part III The whole cell
- Chapter 7 The simplest cells
- Chapter 8 Intermembrane forces
- Chapter 9 Dynamic filaments
- Chapter 10 Mechanical designs
- Appendix A Animal cells and tissues
- Appendix B The cell's molecular building blocks
- Appendix C Elementary statistical mechanics
- Appendix D Elasticity
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Chapter 8 - Intermembrane forces
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of symbols
- Chapter 1 Introduction to the cell
- Part I Rods and ropes
- Part II Membranes
- Part III The whole cell
- Chapter 7 The simplest cells
- Chapter 8 Intermembrane forces
- Chapter 9 Dynamic filaments
- Chapter 10 Mechanical designs
- Appendix A Animal cells and tissues
- Appendix B The cell's molecular building blocks
- Appendix C Elementary statistical mechanics
- Appendix D Elasticity
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
The variety of single cells capable of living independently is truly impressive, from small featureless mycoplasmas just half a micron across, to elegant protists a hundred times that size, perhaps outfitted with tentacles and even a mouth. Organisms such as ourselves, however, are multicellular, emphatically so at 1014 cells per human. How do our cells interact, and adhere when appropriate? In this chapter, we investigate intermembrane forces at large and small separations, beginning with a survey of the different features of membrane interactions in Section 8.1. The Poisson–Boltzmann equation, which we derive in Section 8.2, provides our primary framework for treating membrane interactions at non-zero temperature. This approach is applied to the organization of ions near a single charged plate and to the electrostatic pressure between charged walls in Sections 8.2 and 8.3, respectively. Two other contributors to membrane interactions also are treated in some mathematical detail here: the van der Waals attraction between rigid sheets (Section 8.3) and the steric repulsion experienced by undulating membranes (Section 8.4). The adhesion of a membrane to a substrate, and its effect on cell shape, is described in Section 8.5. Our presentation of membrane forces is necessarily limited; the reader is referred to Israelachvili (1991) or Safran (1994) for more extensive treatments.
Interactions between membranes
Let's briefly review the molecular composition of a conventional plasma membrane. Fundamental to a biomembrane is the lipid bilayer, a pair of two-dimensional fluid leaflets described at length in Chapter 5.
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- Mechanics of the Cell , pp. 247 - 288Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001