Lateral Stresses in Membranes at Low Water Potential

Abstract

Severe dehydration of biological cells can produce large stresses and substantial strains in the membranes of some organelles. Water contents and water potentials which are critical for cellular damage in rather dry tissues may reflect a limiting stress characteristic of cell membranes. Different levels of tolerance of extreme dehydration may therefore be a result of different cellular osmotic pressures or of different stress-strain characteristics of the cellular membranes. In this paper, data from phospholipid osmotic stress measurements are used to model the stresses generated in membranes in dehydrated phases.