Generation of stable overlaps between antiparallel filaments

Abstract

During cell division, sister chromatids are segregated by the mitotic spindle, a bipolar assembly of interdigitating antiparallel polar filaments called microtubules. Establishing a stable overlap region is essential for maintenance of bipolarity, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Using a particle-based stochastic model, we find that the interplay of motors and passive cross linkers can robustly generate partial overlaps between antiparallel filaments. Our analysis shows that motors reduce the overlap in a length-dependent manner, whereas passive cross linkers increase it independently of the length. In addition to maintaining structural integrity, passive cross linkers can thus also have a dynamic role for size regulation.

10 pages 4 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Microtubule Length-Regulation by Molecular Motors

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Stochastic Ratcheting on a Funneled Energy Landscape is Necessary for Highly Efficient Contractility of Actomyosin Force Dipoles
• Bidirectional motion of filaments: Role of motor proteins and passive cross linkers
• The sound of an axon's growth
• Mechanical stability of bipolar spindle assembly
• Novel Catchbond mediated oscillations in motor-microtubule complexes
• Stabilization of overlapping biofilaments by passive crosslinkers