Complementary Matching in Domain Formation within Lipid Bilayers

Domain structure and formation in lipid bilayers are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations using a coarse-grained lipid model. The lipid bilayers consist of two lipid types that are identical except for tail length. At a temperature intermediate to the two melting temperatures of the constituent lipid types, gel domains spontaneously form from an initial random structure. The simulations reveal that the gel domains consist of both lipid types in a complementary match. If a long lipid is in the top monolayer, then a short lipid is underneath and vice versa. The gel domains have a larger thickness than the surrounding liquid phase. The thickness of the gel domains is close to that of the pure long lipid gel phase bilayers. However, since in the mixed gel domains the lipids are not tilted and in the pure gel phase the lipids are tilted, the two thicknesses are similar, and the underlying structure is therefore not distinguishable solely by thickness measurements.