Branching, Capping, and Severing in Dynamic Actin Structures
arXiv:cond-mat/0703409 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.058103
Abstract
Branched actin networks at the leading edge of a crawling cell evolve via protein-regulated processes such as polymerization, depolymerization, capping, branching, and severing. A formulation of these processes is presented and analyzed to study steady-state network morphology. In bulk, we identify several scaling regimes in severing and branching protein concentrations and find that the coupling between severing and branching is optimally exploited for conditions {\it in vivo}. Near the leading edge, we find qualitative agreement with the {\it in vivo} morphology.
4 pages, 2 figures