Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 8, 2026

DNA Nanotubes as a Versatile Tool to Study Semiflexible Polymers
Published on: October 25, 2017
Dynamics of a semiflexible polar filament in Stokes flow
1Department of Mathematical Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA.
Abstract:
In this work, the dynamics and transport of a polarly driven filament is examined using a continuum slender-body model. Immersed in a viscous fluid, the filament gains polar propulsion from the motor proteins (anchored on the motility assay) while experiencing a viscous drag from the bottom wall. Results from the linear analysis on a straight polar filament illustrate the necessity of spatial inhomogeneity in the polar forcing for the buckling instability. The ensuing buckling leads to filament deformation, undulation, and change of its direction of motion in the numerical simulations. Repeated filament buckling in two types of motor protein concentration landscape results in diffusive transport of a polar filament on scales much larger than the mean-free path and the average duration between filament buckling events.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Stokes' Law
The expression for the force on a solid spherical object in a fluid is called Stokes' law. Stokes' law is valid only for low Reynolds...
Potential Due to a Polarized Object
Polarity of the Cytoskeleton
Steady, Laminar Flow in Circular Tubes
Navier–Stokes Equations
Stokes’ Theorem and Its Applications

