Figure 2.

Changing membrane phase state through delivery of new lipid material. (a) Two giant vesicles of different compositions and phase states are fused together using an optical trap. Adding a fully fluid vesicle to one showing gel/fluid domain coexistence (irregularly shaped domains) yielded a vesicle exhibiting liquid-ordered/liquid disordered domain coexistence (spherical domains). Scale bar = 5 µm. (b) A schematic demonstrating adding lipid material from vesicle (1) to vesicle (2) leading to a new vesicle (3) occupying a different part of the phase diagram. Note: this is not an empirical phase diagram; it is an approximate one used for illustrative purposes only.