Fission of a multiphase membrane tube

The behavior of a multiphase membrane tube using thermodynamic arguments was studied. It was observed that forced lipid phase separation can trigger tube fission. It was also observed that the phase separation occurred on a much faster time scale than fission and that the nucleation of the two phases led to the formation of cylindrical domains between a more rigid and a less rigid phase. It was shown that the tube fission can be driven either by the line tension or by the jump of the elastic coefficients at the interface between the two phases.