Actin-myosin spatial patterns from a simplified isotropic viscoelastic model.

ABSTRACT: F-actin networks are involved in cell mechanical processes ranging from motility to endocytosis. The mesoscale architecture of assemblies of individual F-actin polymers that gives rise to micrometer-scale rheological properties is poorly understood, despite numerous in vivo and vitro studies. In vitro networks have been shown to organize into spatial patterns when spatially confined, including dense spherical shells inside spherical emulsion droplets. Here we develop a simplified model of an isotropic, compressible, viscoelastic material continually assembling and disassembling. We demonstrate that spherical shells emerge naturally when the strain relaxation rate (corresponding to internal network reorganization) is slower than the disassembly rate (corresponding to F-actin depolymerizatio

SUBMITTER: Lewis OL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4142239 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature