Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 6: Active Matter 1 (joint session BP/CPP/DY)

CPP 6.3: Talk

Monday, September 5, 2022, 11:15–11:30, H16

Activity-induced polar patterns of filaments gliding on a sphere — •Chiao-Peng Hsu, Alfredo Sciortino, Yu Alice de la Trobe, and Andreas Bausch — Center for Protein Assemblies and Lehrstuhl für Zellbiophysik E27, Physics Department, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany

Active matter systems feature the ability to form collective patterns as observed in a plethora of living systems, from schools of fish to swimming bacteria. While many of these systems move in a wide, three-dimensional environment, several biological systems are confined by a curved topology. The role played by a non-Euclidean geometry on the self-organization of active systems is not yet fully understood, and few experimental systems are available to study it. Here, we introduce an experimental setup in which actin filaments glide on the inner surface of a spherical lipid vesicle, thus embedding them in a curved geometry. We show that filaments self-assemble into polar, elongated structures and that, when these match the size of the spherical geometry, both confinement and topological constraints become relevant for the emergent patterns, leading to the formation of polar vortices and jammed states. These results experimentally demonstrate that activity-induced complex patterns can be shaped by spherical confinement and topology.