Interplay of cytoskeletal activity and lipid phase stability in dynamic protein recruitment and clustering

Abstract

Recent experiments have revealed that some membrane proteins aggregate to form clusters. This type of process has been proven to be dynamic and to be actively maintained by external kinetics. Additionally, this dynamic recruiting is cholesterol- and actin-dependent, suggesting that raft organization and cytoskeleton rearrangement play a crucial role. In the present study, we propose a simple model that provides a general framework to describe the dynamical behavior of lipid-protein assemblies. Our results suggest that lipid-mediated interactions and cytoskeleton-anchored proteins contribute to the modulation of such behavior. In particular, we find a resonant condition between the membrane protein and cytoskeleton dynamics that results in the invariance of the ratio of clustered proteins that is found in in vivo experimental observations.