Related papers: Motorized Chromosome Models of Mitosis
Three-dimensional interphase organization of metazoan genomes has been linked to cellular identity. However, the principles governing 3D interphase genome architecture and its faithful transmission through disruptive events of cell-cycle,…
Nucleosomes are the fundamental building blocks of chromatin that not only help in the folding of chromatin but also in carrying epigenetic information. It is known that nucleosome sliding is responsible for dynamically organizing chromatin…
Contractile forces are essential for many developmental processes involving cell shape change and tissue deformation. Recent experiments on reconstituted actomyosin networks, the major component of the contractile machinery, have shown that…
Characterizing the link between small-scale chromatin structure and large-scale chromosome folding during interphase is a prerequisite for understanding transcription. Yet, this link remains poorly investigated. Here, we introduce a simple…
Actomyosin networks are major structural components of the cell. They provide mechanical integrity and allow dynamic remodeling of eukaryotic cells, self-organizing into the diverse patterns essential for development. We provide a…
Many cell functions are accomplished thanks to intracellular transport mechanisms of macromolecules along filaments. Molecular motors such as dynein or kinesin are proteins playing a primary role in these processes. The behavior of such…
Piecewise smooth hybrid systems, involving continuous and discrete variables, are suitable models for describing the multiscale regulatory machinery of the biological cells. In hybrid models, the discrete variables can switch on and off…
Chromatin remodeling machineries are abundant and diverse in eukaryotic cells. They have been involved in a variety of situations such as histone exchange and DNA repair, but their importance in gene expression remains unclear. Although the…
Motor proteins are active enzyme molecules that play a crucial role in many biological processes. They transform the chemical energy into the mechanical work and move unidirectionally along rigid cytoskeleton filaments. Single-molecule…
Chromatin and associated proteins constitute the highly folded structure of chromosomes. We consider a self-avoiding polymer model of the chromatin, segments of which may get cross-linked via protein binders that repel each other. The…
Essential life processes take place across multiple space and time scales in living organisms but understanding their mechanistic interactions remains an ongoing challenge. Advanced multiscale modeling techniques are providing new…
Living systems often exhibit internal driving: active, molecular processes drive nonequilibrium phenomena such as metabolism or migration. Active gels constitute a fascinating class of internally driven matter, where molecular motors exert…
By observing reconstituted chromatin by fluorescence microscopy (FM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), we found that the density of nucleosomes exhibits a bimodal profile, i.e., there is a large transition between the dense and dispersed…
Biophysicists are modeling conformations of interphase chromosomes, often basing the strengths of interactions between segments distant on the genetic map on contact frequencies determined experimentally. Here, instead, we develop a…
Epigenetics is a driving force of important and ubiquitous phenomena in nature such as cell differentiation or even metamorphosis. Oppositely to its widespread role, understanding the biophysical principles that allow epigenetics to control…
We investigate the dynamics of two-dimensional assemblies of rod-shaped magnetic colloids under the influence of an external rotating magnetic field. Using Molecular Dynamics, we simulate the formation of patterns that emerge based on the…
By means of a minimal physical model, we investigate the interplay of two phase transitions at play in chromatin organization: (1) liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) within the fluid solvating chromatin, resulting in the formation of…
The rheology of biological cells is not only determined by their cytoskeletal networks, but also by the molecular motors that crosslink and contract them. Recently it has been found that the assemblies of myosin II molecular motors in…
Based on a recently proposed non-equilibrium mechanism for spatial pattern formation [cond-mat/0312366] we study how morphogenesis can be controlled by locally coupled discrete dynamical networks, similar to gene regulation networks of…
We solve a hydrodynamic model of active chromatin dynamics, within a confined geometry simulating the cell nucleus. Using both analytical and numerical methods, we describe the behavior of the chromatin polymer driven by the activity of…