FIGURE 1.

Inclusion induced deformation (positive mismatch case). A symmetric transmembrane protein with hydrophobic residues around its periphery exceeding the thickness of the surrounding membrane will tend to distort the bilayer as shown (not to scale). A protein thinner than the surrounding membrane (negative mismatch) is expected to induce the opposite effect. The nonmonotonic deformation profile in membrane thickness as one moves away from the inclusion is predicted theoretically by continuum elastic models and is observed in simulations.