7 June 2001

Self-assembly: Icosahedral bilayers

A new type of self-assembled bilayer organization is demonstrated.

Lipids, and mixtures of anionic and cationic single-chain surfactants, readily form bilayers that can fold to form vesicles, ordered membrane stacks or random bilayers. Now a new type of self-assembled bilayer organization is demonstrated: hollow aggregates of regular icosahedral shape formed at certain compositions in salt-free mixtures of anionic and cationic surfactants (catanionics). The aggregates are stabilized by the presence of pores located at the vertices about a micrometre apart, and are much larger than any known protein assembly or virus capsid.

Self-assembly of regular hollow icosahedra in salt-free catanionic solutions
MONIQUE DUBOIS, BRUNO DEMÉ, THADDÉE GULIK-KRZYWICKI, JEAN-CLAUDE DEDIEU, CLAIRE VAUTRIN, SYLVAIN DÉSERT, EMILE PEREZ & THOMAS ZEMB
Nature 411, 672-675 (7 June 2001)
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7 June 2001 table of contents