By simulating different retraction rates, we were able to investigate the high pull rate part of the dynamical spectrum of lipid adhesion forces. It is shown that the adhesion force increases along the unbinding path, until the point of rupture is reached. The maximum value of the adhesion force, the rupture force, decreases as the pull rate becomes slower, and eventually enters a friction dominated regime. The computed bon lengths depend on the rate of rupture too, and show some scatter due to the non-equilibrium nature of the experiment. On average, the bond length increases from approximately 1.7 nm towards 2.3 nm as the rates go down.
Conformational analyses elucidate the detailed mechanism of lipid-membrane bond rupture.
In total, results of over 15 ns of membrane simulations are presented.