Rheinstaedter, Maikel C.; Das, Jhuma; Flenner, Elijah J.; Bruening, Beate; Seydel, Tilo; Kosztin, Ioan
Motional Coherence in Fluid Phospholipid Membranes
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 101 Art. No. 248106, DEC 12 2008

We report a high energy-resolution neutron backscattering study, combined with in situ diffraction, to investigate slow molecular motions on nanosecond time scales in the fluid phase of phospholipid bilayers of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phoshatidylcholine. A cooperative structural relaxation process was observed. From the in-plane scattering vector dependence of the relaxation rates in hydrogenated and deuterated samples, combined with results from a 0.1 mu s long all-atom molecular dynamics simulation, it is concluded that correlated dynamics in lipid membranes occurs over several lipid distances, spanning a time interval from pico- to nanoseconds.

DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.248106

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