Fig. 1.

Model development. a Filaments are built out of interconnected three-beaded units. The target geometry of the filament is a flat ring whose radius is determined by the rest lengths of bonds between the triplet units. The inset highlights two neighbouring units connected by 9 bonds to preserve the spiral chirality. The blue beads of the triplet are attracted to the membrane. b If the filament is longer than the circumference of the target ring, it will acquire a geometry of a spiral with tense bonds, which is our initial configuration of the system. c Placing a flat spiral on the membrane does not lead to a significant membrane deformation. The filament density increases, but its membrane-attracted face remains trapped in the same 2D plane. A shallow buckle that develops around − 5 nm is due to the membrane enveloping the filament to maximise their contact surface. The arrows highlight simulation snapshots at specific time steps. The radius of the target geometry is R=20.4 nm and the persistence length of the filament l_p=1.8·10³ nm