The influence of zwitterionic lipids on the electrostatic adsorption of macroions onto mixed lipid membranes

Charged lipid membranes commonly consist of a mixture of charged and zwitterionic lipids. We suggest a model that characterizes the influence of the dipolar nature of the zwitterionic lipid species on the electrostatic adsorption of macroions onto mixed membranes in the fluid state. The model is based on Poisson-Boltzmann theory which we have modified so as to account for the dipolar character of the zwitterionic lipids. In addition the membrane lipids are allowed to adjust their lateral distribution upon macroion adsorption. We consider and compare two experimentally relevant scenarios: cationic macroions adsorbed onto anionic membranes and anionic macroions adsorbed onto cationic membranes. We show that in the former case the adsorption strength is slightly weakened by the presence of the headgroup dipoles of the zwitterionic lipids. Here, macroion-induced lipid demixing is more pronounced and the lipid headgroups tilt away from a cationic macroion upon adsorption. In contrast, for the adsorption of anionic macroions onto a cationic membrane the zwitterionic lipids strongly participate in the electrostatic interaction between membrane and macroion, thus enhancing the adsorption strength significantly (we predict up to 20%). Consistent with that we find less lateral demixing of the charged lipids and a reorientation of the dipoles of the zwitterionic headgroups towards the anionic macroions. Our results may be of importance to understand the differences in the electrostatic adsorption of proteins/peptides onto cellular membranes versus complex formation between cationic membranes and DNA.