Cis-interaction of ligands on a supported lipid bilayer affects their binding to cell adhesion receptors

Cell adhesion on a supported lipid bilayer (SLB) functionalized with ligand proteins is widely-used cell-mimetic model for the study of trans receptor-ligand interaction that mediates adhesion, and has been shown to play an important role in unravelling molecular players cell adhesion. Experimental studies such cell-SLB systems often assume there no cis interactions between ligands. An question remains whether cis-interaction affects interaction. Using statistical-mechanical Monte Carlo simulations biologically relevant parameters, we find attractive strength 1 kBT adjacent ligands SLB can lead amplification both affinity cooperativity binding, thereby facilitating phase separation within adhering membrane. In contrast, system less sensitive repulsive SLB. Our results suggest ligand-ligand should be carefully considered experiments.