Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 28: Cytoskeleton

BP 28.2: Talk

Thursday, March 21, 2024, 09:45–10:00, H 2032

Transient contacts between filaments bestow its elasticity to branched actin — Mehdi Bouzid^1,2, Cesar Valencia Gallardo³, Magdalena Kopec³, Giuseppe Foffi⁴, Julien Heuvingh³, Olivia du Roure³, and •Martin Lenz^2,3 — ¹3SR, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, France — ²LPTMS, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France — ³Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636, CNRS, ESPCI Paris, PSL — ⁴LPS, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France

The biologically crucial elasticity of actin networks is usually understood as an interplay between the bending and stretching of its filaments. This point of view however fails when applied to the weakly coordinated branched actin networks found throughout the cell. Through experiments and theory, we show that their elasticity crucially involves reversible entanglements between their filaments. These entanglements can in turn be controlled during network growth to regulate the final properties of the network. These properties could be key to understanding how moving cells dynamically adapt their cytoskeleton to their environment.

Keywords: Actin; Network mechanics; Soft Matter; Theory