Non-equilibrium microtubule fluctuations in a model cytoskeleton

Abstract

Biological activity gives rise to non-equilibrium fluctuations in the cytoplasm of cells; however, there are few methods to directly measure these fluctuations. Using a reconstituted actin cytoskeleton, we show that the bending dynamics of embedded microtubules can be used to probe local stress fluctuations. We add myosin motors that drive the network out of equilibrium, resulting in an increased amplitude and modified time-dependence of microtubule bending fluctuations. We show that this behavior results from step-like forces on the order of 10 pN driven by collective motor dynamics.

References in corpus (3)

• Non-equilibrium mechanics and dynamics of motor activated gels
• Rheology of Active Filament Solutions
• Internal Motility in Stiffening Actin-Myosin Networks

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Dynamics of a stiff biopolymer in an actively contractile background: buckling, stiffening and negative dissipation