Glass transition and rheological redundancy in F-actin solutions.

ABSTRACT: The unique mechanical performance of animal cells and tissues is attributed mostly to their internal biopolymer meshworks. Its perplexing universality and robustness against structural modifications by drugs and mutations is an enigma in cell biology and provides formidable challenges to materials science. Recent investigations could pinpoint highly universal patterns in the soft glassy rheology and nonlinear elasticity of cells and reconstituted networks. Here, we report observations of a glass transition in semidilute F-actin solutions, which could hold the key to a unified explanation of these phenomena. Combining suitable rheological protocols with high-precision dynamic light scattering, we can establish a remarkable rheological redundancy and trace it back to a highly universal expon

SUBMITTER: Semmrich C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2154408 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature