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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Mol Microbiol. 2010 Apr 25;76(4):822–832. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07168.x

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Lipid packing defects at the nanometer scale in (A) flat membranes caused by lipids with intrinsic curvature, or (B) highly curved membranes composed of cylindrical lipids. The positive curvature of the outer leaflet is shown in green, while the negative curvature of the inner leaflet is shown in red. The packing stress at this scale may be alleviated by insertion of an amphipathic helix (depicted as an orange wedge) at the location of the defect. In this manner, an amphipathic helix could also favour the formation of highly curved vesicles.