Stacked, Folded, and Bent Lipid Membranes

Abstract

Lipid membranes are generally thought of as flat or spherical structures, much as we would view the plasma membrane of a cell. Within the cell, however, there exists a wide variety of stacked, folded, and other forms of bent structures that support and enable such functions as photosynthesis, light-sensing, protein synthesis, molecular shuttling, chemical uptake and release, and cell division. These functions benefit from the high asymmetry of the membrane. Stacked or folded structures provide a highly concentrated and ordered assembly for facile energy and molecular transport, while bent structures facilitate budding, division, and fusion events. In this article, we survey the progress made in understanding the formation of these membrane architectures, the development of synthetic forms of stacked and folded assemblies, and the unique materials issues they present.