Microfluidic trapping of vesicles reveals membrane-tension dependent FtsZ cytoskeletal re-organisation

The geometry of reaction compartments can affect the outcome of chemical reactions. Synthetic biology commonly uses giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) to generate cell-sized, membrane-bound reaction compartments. However, these liposomes are always spherical due to surface area minimization. Here, we have developed a microfluidic chip to trap and reversibly deform GUVs into rod- or cigar-like shapes, including a constriction site in the trap mimicking the membrane furrow in cell division. When we introduce into these GUVs the bacterial tubulin homologue FtsZ, the primary protein of the bacterial Z ring, we find that FtsZ organization changes from dynamic rings to elongated filaments upon GUV deformation, and that these FtsZ filaments align preferentially with the short GUV axis, in particular at the membrane neck. In contrast, pulsing Min oscillations in GUVs remained largely unaffected. We conclude that microfluidic traps are a useful tool for deforming GUVs into non-spherical membrane shapes, akin to those seen in cell division, and for investigating the effect of confinement geometry on biochemical reactions, such as protein filament self-organization.