Designing Highly Tunable Semiflexible Filament Networks

Pandolfi, Ronald; Edwards, Lauren; Hirst, Linda S.

doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2013.11.2373

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“…Our model also neglects actin bending and crosslinking, treating bundles as rigid rods throughout their dynamics. To assess the domain of validity of this approximation [25], we compare the energetic incentive for two bundles entangled with the rest of the network to merge over a fraction of their length and compare it to the bending cost of doing so (Fig. 5).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dynamics of filament assembly define cytoskeletal network morphology

2016

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The actin cytoskeleton is a key component in the machinery of eukaryotic cells, and it self-assembles out of equilibrium into a wide variety of biologically crucial structures. Although the molecular mechanisms involved are well characterized, the physical principles governing the spatial arrangement of actin filaments are not understood. Here we propose that the dynamics of actin network assembly from growing filaments results from a competition between diffusion, bundling and steric hindrance, and is responsible for the range of observed morphologies. Our model and simulations thus predict an abrupt dynamical transition between homogeneous and strongly bundled networks as a function of the actin polymerization rate. This suggests that cells may effect dramatic changes to their internal architecture through minute modifications of their nonequilibrium dynamics. Our results are consistent with available experimental data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%