Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Many biological systems rely on interactions between active processes and passive, deformable structures to properly function. An important example is chromatin in the cell nucleus, where ATP-powered processes, such as transcription or DNA repair, act on the chromatin fiber and influence its motion. Motivated by this system, in this study we develop and analyze a model of a flexible fiber in an active suspension as an analog to a chromatin fiber in an active environment - the nucleoplasm. Interactions between the suspension and the fiber lead to a novel bend instability, and nonlinear simulations identify coherent motions and conformations of the fiber over long timescales.
Source: Physical Review Fluids
Language: English
Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1410324694, Collaborative Research: DMS/NIGMS2: Discovering the Principles of Active Self-Organization in the Differentiating Genome Using Multi-Scale Modeling and In-Vivo Experiments, Investigating Phase Separations as a Mechanism of Genome Compartmentalization Through In-vivo Experiments, Collaborative Research: Interphase Chromatin as a Complex Active Fluid: Experiments and Microscopic to Mesoscopic Modeling, CAREER: Physics of Chromatin: Micromechanics of Active Chromatin Dynamics in Interphase, Collaborative Research: Multiscale engineering of active stress in biomaterials, G7805964360
OpenAlex ID: W4390985669