Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 17 March 1995:
Vol. 267. no. 5204, pp. 1635 - 1638
DOI: 10.1126/science.267.5204.1635
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Lipid Tubule Self-Assembly: Length Dependence on Cooling Rate Through a First-Order Phase Transition

Britt N. Thomas 1, Cyrus R. Safinya 2, Robert J. Plano 3, and Noel A. Clark 4

1 Condensed Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, and Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801, USA.
2 Materials and Physics Departments and the Interdepartmental Program on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
3 Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801, USA.
4 Condensed Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

The formation kinetics and self-assembly of multilamellar tubules of the diacetylenic phospholipid 1,2-bis(tricosa-10,12-diynoyl)-sn-glycerol-3-phosphocholine formed under controlled cooling rates were studied by x-ray diffraction and optical, atomic force, and scanning electron microscopy. Tubule formation was driven by a reversible first-order phase transition from an intralamellar, chain-melted Lagr phase to a chain-frozen Lbeta, phase. These observations are the basis of a highly efficient method of tubule production in which tubule lengths can be controlled, between 1 and 100 micrometers, by varying the cooling rate. These tubules can be made in suspensions with 10 percent lipid by mass, far exceeding the lipid solubility limit.

Submitted on October 12, 1994
Accepted on January 19, 1995


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Macroscopic Tubes.
D. Yan, Y. Zhou, and J. Hou (2004)
Science 303, 65-67
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Hierarchical Self-Assembly of F-Actin and Cationic Lipid Complexes: Stacked Three-Layer Tubule Networks.
G. C. L. Wong, J. X. Tang, A. Lin, Y. Li, P. A. Janmey, and C. R. Safinya (2000)
Science 288, 2035-2039
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Self-assembly of chlorophenols in water.
E. Rogalska, M. Rogalski, T. Gulik-Krzywicki, A. Gulik, and C. Chipot (1999)
PNAS 96, 6577-6580
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)