Area Increase and Budding in Giant Vesicles Triggered by Light: Behind the Scene

Biomembranes are constantly remodeled and in cells, these processes are controlled and modulated by an assortment of membrane proteins. Here, it is shown that such remodeling can also be induced by photoresponsive molecules. The morphological control of giant vesicles in the presence of a water‐soluble ortho‐tetrafluoroazobenzene photoswitch (F‐azo) is demonstrated and it is shown that the shape transformations are based on an increase in membrane area and generation of spontaneous curvature. The vesicles exhibit budding and the buds can be retracted by using light of a different wavelength. In the presence of F‐azo, the membrane area can increase by more than 5% as assessed from vesicle electrodeformation. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism and the partitioning of F‐azo in the membrane, molecular dynamics simulations are employed. Comparison with theoretically calculated shapes reveals that the budded shapes are governed by curvature elasticity, that the spontaneous curvature can be decomposed into a local and a nonlocal contribution, and that the local spontaneous curvature is about 1/(2.5 µm). The results show that exo‐ and endocytotic events can be controlled by light and that these photoinduced processes provide an attractive method to change membrane area and morphology.