Anomalous flexural behaviors of microtubules

Apparent controversies exist on whether the persistence length of microtubules depends on its contour length. This issue is particularly challenging from a theoretical point of view due to the tubular structure and strongly anisotropic material property of microtubules. Here we adopt a higher order continuum orthotropic thin shell model to study the flexural behavior of microtubules. Our model overcomes some key limitations of a recent study based on a simplified anisotropic shell model and results in a closed-form solution for the contour-length-dependent persistence length of microtubules, with predictions in excellent agreement with experimental measurements. By studying the ratio between their contour and persistence lengths, we find that microtubules with length at ~1.5 μm show the lowest flexural rigidity, whereas those with length at ~15 μm show the highest flexural rigidity. This finding may provide an important theoretical basis for understanding the mechanical structure of mitotic spindles during cell division. Further analysis on the buckling of microtubules indicates that the critical buckling load becomes insensitive to the tube length for relatively short microtubules, in drastic contrast to the classical Euler buckling. These rich flexural behaviors of microtubules are of profound implication for many biological functions and biomimetic molecular devices.