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Directly Measuring Forces Within Reconstituted Active Microtubule Bundles
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Polymerisation force of a rigid filament bundle: diffusive interaction leads to sublinear force-number scaling
Jemseena Valiyakath1,2, Manoj Gopalakrishnan3
1Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600036, India.
Scientific Reports
|February 8, 2018
Summary
This study reveals how monomer diffusion impacts polymer growth dynamics and force generation. Including barrier effects and diffusive coupling between filaments reveals new insights into polymer behavior and interactions.
Area of Science:
- Biophysics
- Cell Biology
- Polymer Physics
Background:
- Polymerizing filaments generate force against obstacles, crucial for cellular processes like microtubule-kinetochore interactions.
- Previous models overlooked explicit three-dimensional monomer diffusion, missing key physical effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of monomer diffusion, barrier effects, and diffusive coupling on polymer growth and force generation.
- To analyze how these factors influence the interaction and force scaling of parallel filaments.
Main Methods:
- Mathematical modeling using continuum Fokker-Planck equations for filament-wall dynamics.
- Brownian dynamics simulations to observe filament behavior and interactions.
Main Results:
- Barrier-induced monomer depletion reduces filament growth velocity and stall force.
- Linear force-number scaling is observed for distant filaments, but sublinear scaling emerges for bundled filaments due to diffusive interactions.
Conclusions:
- Explicit inclusion of monomer diffusion and diffusive coupling provides a more accurate model of polymerizing filaments.
- Diffusive interactions significantly alter force generation and scaling in closely packed filament systems, impacting cellular mechanics.
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