Abstract

Lipid droplets are organelles responsible for the accumulation and breakdown of neutral fats in the human body. Lipid droplets have a monolayer shell of phospholipids, which prevents their spontaneous fusion. The fusion of lipid droplets is carried out by specialized fusion proteins and is regulated by the lipid composition of the monolayer membrane. The efficiency of fusion is determined by the energy needed for the local approach of lipid droplets and the topological rearrangement of their monolayers. In this work, the fusion of monolayers is modeled within the framework of the theory of membrane elasticity. The energy barrier for fusion is calculated under various conditions simulating possible compositions of monolayers, as well as the possible effects of proteins. The calculation results show that the height of the barrier is most dependent on the distance between lipid droplets, which is determined by the fusion proteins. Lipid composition also affects the fusion efficiency and can change it several tens of times, which is consistent with previously obtained data on bilayer fusion.

中文翻译：

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脂滴融合过程中单层茎形成的能垒

摘要

脂滴是负责人体内中性脂肪积累和分解的细胞器。脂滴具有单层磷脂壳，可防止它们自发融合。脂滴的融合是由专门的融合蛋白进行的，并受到单层膜的脂质组成的调节。融合效率取决于脂滴局部接近及其单层拓扑重排所需的能量。在这项工作中，在膜弹性理论的框架内对单层的融合进行了建模。融合的能垒是在模拟单层的可能组成以及蛋白质的可能影响的各种条件下计算的。计算结果表明，屏障的高度最依赖于脂滴之间的距离，而脂滴之间的距离是由融合蛋白决定的。脂质成分也会影响融合效率，可以改变数十倍，这与之前获得的双层融合数据一致。