Figure 3

Sketch of the of polymerization steps and the wrinkling of the vesicles.

Spherical vesicles were initially formed at T₂ = 45°C. When they were cooled below , they turned into cylindrical tubules. We polymerized them when they were in the tubule phase (Step I) and then, when we heated them, they swelled into spherical vesicles (Step II). When these polymerized spherical vesicles were cooled, they wrinkled when the temperature was T₁, well below the melting temperature (Step III). When these wrinkled vesicles were then heated back to T₂ (Step IV), they turned into spheres if the degree of polymerization was less than a critical value or they stayed locked in this configuration if the degree of polymerization was above this critical value. In steps I, II, III and IV, the loadings were identical: T₁ = 15°C and T₂ = 45°C.