Illustration of a vesicle composed of two lipid layers. A custom decoration is created to place lipid leaflets evenly on a circle.
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\documentclass{article} \usepackage{tikz} \usetikzlibrary{decorations,decorations.pathreplacing} \begin{document} % Define decoration \pgfdeclaredecoration{lipidleaflet}{initial} { % Place as many segments as possible along the path to decorate % the minimum distance between two segments is set to 7 pt. \state{initial}[width=\pgfdecoratedpathlength/floor(\pgfdecoratedpathlength/7pt)] { % Draw the two acyl chains \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpoint{-1pt}{0pt}} \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{-1pt}{-10pt}} \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpoint{1pt}{0pt}} \pgfpathlineto{\pgfpoint{1pt}{-10pt}} % Draw the head group \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpoint{1pt}{0pt}} \pgfpathcircle{\pgfpoint{0pt}{2pt}}{2.5pt} } \state{final} { \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfpointdecoratedpathlast} } } % Draw a vesicle composed of two lipid layers \begin{tikzpicture} % Micelle \draw[decorate, decoration={lipidleaflet, mirror}] (0, 3) circle (0.6cm); \draw (0, 2) node {Micelle}; % Inverted micelle \draw[decorate, decoration={lipidleaflet}] (0, 0) circle (0.45cm); \draw (0, -1) node {Inverted micelle}; % Lipid bilayer \draw[decorate, decoration={lipidleaflet, mirror}] (-1, -2.8) -- (2, -2.8); \draw[decorate, decoration={lipidleaflet}] (-1, -2) -- (2, -2); \draw (0, -3.5) node {Lipid bilayer}; % Vesicle \draw[decorate, decoration={lipidleaflet}] (5, 0.5) circle (2.5cm); \draw[decorate, decoration={lipidleaflet, mirror}] (5, 0.5) circle (3.3cm); \draw (5, -3.5) node {Vesicle}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}
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