Fig 2. Reversible dissolution and formation of microdomains.

a, AFM topography of isolated membrane samples in buffer solution, for a thermal cycle in which the temperature is first increased from 25°C to 30°C and then 37°C, followed by a decrease back to 25°C. Arrows indicate the sequence of the images. Vertical (color) scale for all AFM images: 9 nm, see also scale bar in Fig 1. b, Histogram of the surface area of the microdomains observed on the membrane patches in (a), demonstrating a shrinking of microdomains for higher temperatures and a full recovery at the end of the thermal cycle (25°C*). c, Histogram of the total surface area of all patches that are fully included within the frames displayed in (a), showing that the absolute changes in total patch area are small compared to the absolute changes in microdomain area over the thermal cycle. Error bars = 5% (see Methods).