Related papers: Actin filaments pushing against a barrier: Compari…
Molecular motors and cytoskeletal filaments work collectively most of the time under opposing forces. This opposing force may be due to cargo carried by motors or resistance coming from the cell membrane pressing against the cytoskeletal…
We have used numerical simulations to investigate how the properties of motor proteins control the dynamical behavior of a driven flexible filament. The filament is pinned at one end and positioned on top of a patch of anchored motor…
Living cells move thanks to assemblies of actin filaments and myosin motors that range from very organized striated muscle tissue to disordered intracellular bundles. The mechanisms powering these disordered structures are debated, and all…
Filaments are key for star formation models. As part of the study carried out by the Herschel GCC Programme, here we study the filament properties presented in GCC.VII in context with theoretical models of filament formation and evolution.…
We investigate the effect of filament-obstacle interactions on the force-velocity relation of growing biopolymers, via calculations explicitly treating obstacle diffusion and stochastic addition and subtraction of subunits. We first show…
Mixing of two fluids can lead to the formation of a precipitate. If one of the fluids is injected into a confined space filled with the other, a created precipitate disrupts the flow locally and forms complex spatiotemporal patterns. The…
The growth of bacterial flagellar filaments is a self-assembly process where flagellin molecules are transported through the narrow core of the flagellum and are added at the distal end. To model this situation, we generalize a growth…
Mechanochemical simulations of actomyosin networks are traditionally based on one-dimensional models of actin filaments having zero width. Here, and in the follow up paper, approaches are presented for more efficient modelling which…
In this work, we compare the structural and dynamic behavior of active filaments in two dimensions using tangential and push-pull models, including a variant with passive end monomers. These models serve as valuable frameworks for…
Reconstituted filamentous actin networks with myosin motor proteins form active gels, in which motor proteins generate forces that drive the network far from equilibrium. This motor activity can also strongly affect the network elasticity;…
Filamentary structures are ubiquitous in the interstellar medium, yet their formation, internal structure, and longevity have not been studied in detail. We report the results from a comprehensive numerical study that investigates the…
Fiberboids are active filaments trapped at the interface of two phases, able of harnessing energy (and matter) fluxes across the interface in order to produce a rolling-like self-propulsion. We discuss several table-top examples and develop…
The generation mechanism of growth strains is investigated theoretically by developing an elastic analysis of a wood cell viewed as a composite tube, with layers composed of a ligno-cellulosic material of varying composition and…
Using a simple model, we study the fluctuating dynamics of inextensible, semiflexible polar filaments interacting with active and directed force generating centres such as molecular motors. Taking into account the fact that the activity…
Plant root growth is dramatically reduced in compacted soils, affecting the growth of the whole plant. Through a model experiment coupling force and kinematics measurements, we probed the force-growth relationship of a primary root…
Active force generation by actin-myosin cortex coupled to the cell membrane allows the cell to deform, respond to the environment, and mediate cell motility and division. Several membrane-bound activator proteins move along it and couple to…
Intermediate filaments form an essential structural network, spread throughout the cytoplasm and play a key role in cell mechanics, intracellular organization and molecular signaling. The maintenance of the network and its adaptation to the…
We study a simple two-dimensional model for motion of an elastic filament subject to internally generated stresses and show that wave-like propagating shapes which can propel the filament can be induced by a self-organized mechanism via a…
The entropic force exerted by the Brownian fluctuations of a grafted semiflexible polymer upon a rigid smooth wall are calculated both analytically and by Monte Carlo simulations. Such forces are thought to play an important role for…
The functioning of machines typically requires a concerted action of their parts. This requirement also holds for molecular motors that drive vital cellular processes and imposes constraints on their conformational changes as well as the…