Thermosensing through membrane mechanics

Recent years have seen enormous progress in our understanding of the molecular basis for thermosensing and mechanosensing. In particular, it has been shown that thermosensing and mechanosensing both rely crucially on ion channels that are activated by thermal or mechanical stimuli. We explore here the possibility that thermal and mechanical activation of ion channels, as well as other membrane proteins, may be coupled through the physical properties of lipid bilayer membranes. In particular, experiments have shown that key mechanical properties of lipid bilayers, such as the bilayer hydrophobic thickness and bending rigidity, change with temperature over biologically relevant temperature ranges. We use this experimental data to estimate the effect of temperature changes on lipid bilayer-dependent contributions to the transition energy between different conformational states of membrane proteins. Our calculations suggest that the elastic coupling of lipid bilayer properties and membrane protein conformational state may provide a generic physical mechanism for temperature sensing through membrane mechanics.