Single Giant Vesicle Rupture Events Reveal Multiple Mechanisms of Glass-Supported Bilayer Formation

ABSTRACT

The formation of supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) on glass from giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) was studied using fluorescence microscopy. We show that GUV rupture occurs by at least four mechanisms, including 1), spontaneous rupture of isolated GUVs yielding almost heart-shaped bilayer patches (asymmetric rupture); 2), spontaneous rupture of isolated GUVs yielding circular bilayer patches (symmetric rupture); 3), induced rupture of an incoming vesicle when it contacts a planar bilayer edge; and 4), induced rupture of an adsorbed GUV when a nearby GUV spontaneously ruptures. In pathway 1, the dominant rupture pathway for isolated GUVs, GUVs deformed upon adsorption to the …