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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 19: Focus session: Physics of cilia: Dynamics of synchronized oscillators

BP 19.1: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 3. April 2019, 15:00–15:30, H11

Self-organized wave-like beating of actin bundles — Marie Pochitaloff¹, Mathieu Richard¹, Takagi Yasuharu², Wenxiang Cao³, Enrique De La cruz³, Jim Sellers², Jean-François Joanny¹, Frank Jülicher⁴, Laurent Blanchoin⁵, and •Pascal Martin¹ — ¹Institut Curie, Paris, France — ²NHLBI-NIH, Bethesda, USA — ³Yale University, New Haven, USA — ⁴MPIPKS, Dresden, Germany — ⁵CEA, Grenoble

The emergent active behaviors of systems comprising large numbers of molecular motors and cytoskeletal filaments remain poorly understood, even though individual molecules have been extensively characterized. Here, we show in vitro with a minimal acto-myosin system that flagellar-like beating emerges naturally and robustly in polar bundles of filaments. Using surface micro-patterns of a nucleation-promoting factor, we controlled the geometry of actin polymerization to produce thin networks of parallel actin filaments. With either myosin Va or heavy-mero myosin II motors added in bulk, growing actin filaments self-organized into bundles that displayed periodic wave-like beating resembling those observed in eukaryotic cilia and flagella. We studied how varying the motor type or changing the size of the actin bundles influenced the properties of the actin-bending waves. In addition, using myosin-Va-GFP to visualize the motors within the actin bundle, we identified a novel feedback mechanism between motor activity and filament bending. Overall, structural control over the self-assembly process provides key information to clarify the physical principles underlying flagellar-like beating.