Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 117, Issue 20, Pages 10825-10831Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1922494117
Keywords
actin reorganization; marginal stability; avalanche
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [CHE 1743392, PHY 1522550]
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics [PHY 1427654]
- D. R.Bullard-Welch Chair at Rice University [C-0016]
- William Wheless III Professorship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
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Actomyosin networks give cells the ability to move and divide. These networks contract and expand while being driven by active energy-consuming processes such as motor protein walking and actin polymerization. Actin dynamics is also regulated by actin-binding proteins, such as the actin-related protein 2/3 (Arp2/3) complex. This complex generates branched filaments, thereby changing the overall organization of the network. In this work, the spatiotemporal patterns of dynamical actin assembly accompanying the branching-induced reorganization caused by Arp2/3 were studied using a computational model (mechanochemical dynamics of active networks [MEDYAN]); this model simulates actomyosin network dynamics as a result of chemical reactions whose rates are modulated by rapid mechanical equilibration. We show that branched actomyosin networks relax significantly more slowly than do unbranched networks. Also, branched networks undergo rare convulsive movements, avalanches, that release strain in the network. These avalanches are associated with the more heterogeneous distribution of mechanically linked filaments displayed by branched networks. These far-from-equilibrium events arising from the marginal stability of growing actomyosin networks provide a possible mechanism of the cytoquakes recently seen in experiments.
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