IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v7y2016i1d10.1038_ncomms13120.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Boundaries steer the contraction of active gels

Author

Listed:
  • Matthias Schuppler

    (Cellular Biophysics E27, Technical University of Munich)

  • Felix C. Keber

    (Cellular Biophysics E27, Technical University of Munich)

  • Martin Kröger

    (Polymer Physics, ETH Zurich)

  • Andreas R. Bausch

    (Cellular Biophysics E27, Technical University of Munich)

Abstract

Cells set up contractile actin arrays to drive various shape changes and to exert forces to their environment. To understand their assembly process, we present here a reconstituted contractile system, comprising F-actin and myosin II filaments, where we can control the local activation of myosin by light. By stimulating different symmetries, we show that the force balancing at the boundaries determine the shape changes as well as the dynamics of the global contraction. Spatially anisotropic attachment of initially isotropic networks leads to a self-organization of highly aligned contractile fibres, being reminiscent of the order formation in muscles or stress fibres. The observed shape changes and dynamics are fully recovered by a minimal physical model.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Schuppler & Felix C. Keber & Martin Kröger & Andreas R. Bausch, 2016. "Boundaries steer the contraction of active gels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13120
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13120
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms13120?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ryota Sakamoto & Michael P. Murrell, 2024. "Mechanical power is maximized during contractile ring-like formation in a biomimetic dividing cell model," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13120. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.