A multiscale active nematic theory of microtubule/motor-protein assemblies
Year: 2014
Type: preprint
Abstract: Microtubules and motor proteins are building blocks of self-organized subcellular biological structures such as the mitotic spindle and the centrosomal microtubule array. These same ingredients can form new bioactive liquid-crystalline fluids that are intrinsically out of equilibrium and which display complex flows and defect dynamics. It is not yet well understood how microscopic activity, which involves polarity-dependent interactions between motor proteins and microtubules, yields such larger scale dynamical structures. In our multiscale theory, Brownian dynamics simulations of polar microtubule ensembles driven by crosslinking motors allow us to study microscopic organization and stresses. Polarity sorting and crosslink relaxation emerge as two polar-specific sources of active destabilizing stress. On larger length scales, our continuum Doi-Onsager theory captures the hydrodynamic flows generated by polarity-dependent active stresses. The results connect local polar structure to flow structures and defect dynamics.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Tong Gao, Robert Blackwell, Matthew A. Glaser, Meredith D. Betterton, Michael Shelley
Language: English
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2743551466