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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 16, 2025

Reconstituting and Characterizing Actin-Microtubule Composites with Tunable Motor-Driven Dynamics and Mechanics

Reconstituting and Characterizing Actin-Microtubule Composites with Tunable Motor-Driven Dynamics and Mechanics

Published on: August 25, 2022

Motor crosslinking augments elasticity in active nematics.

Steven A Redford, Jonathan Colen, Jordan L Shivers

|September 11, 2023

Summary

Active materials generate flows from internal stresses. This study links microscopic properties like motor speed and filament crosslinking to active nematic behavior and emergent flows.

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Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics

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Last Updated: Jul 16, 2025

Reconstituting and Characterizing Actin-Microtubule Composites with Tunable Motor-Driven Dynamics and Mechanics

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Published on: August 25, 2022

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Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics

Published on: January 13, 2023

Area of Science:

Soft Matter Physics
Biophysics
Materials Science

Background:

Active materials exhibit emergent long-range flows driven by internal stresses.
Understanding mesoscopic (hydrodynamic) parameter dependence is developing, but microscopic origins remain unclear.

Approach:

Combined experiments and multiscale modeling to link active nematic structure and dynamics to microscopic properties.
Investigated motor processivity, speed, and valency, along with filament crosslinking effects.

Key Points:

Filament crosslinking by motors and passive agents augments and dominates nematic elasticity.
Motor speed and crosslinking compete, leading to nonmonotonic flow dependence on motor speed.
Passive filament crosslinking significantly dictates energy transfer into nematic flow.

Conclusions:

Motor proteins are crucial for both generating activity and contributing to nematic elasticity in active materials.
Provides insights for the rational engineering of active materials with desired flow properties.