Time lapse imaging illustrates raft behavior in a membrane for three different long and short rod stoichiometric ratios at the same dextran concentration of 40 mg/ml and achiral long rod composition of 37% left-handed and 63% right-handed rods. The long left-handed rods are fluorescently labeled with DyLight488. At low number density (15% short rods total) dilute rafts exhibit a gas-like structure. Rafts form higher-order structures such as tetramers and trimers in the membrane at intermediate raft density (25% short rods). At high density (30% short rods), rafts form square lattice-like assemblies leaving large open spaces in the membrane. Images were taken using fluorescence and differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. Scale bar is 4 μm for all raft densities.
Joia M. Miller, Chaitanya Joshi, Prerna Sharma, Arvind Baskaran, Aparna Baskaran, Gregory M. Grason, Michael F. Hagan, and Zvonimir Dogic
PNAS. 2019. 116:15792-15801 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1900615116