Issue 2, 2011

Strain stiffening induced by molecular motors in active crosslinked biopolymer networks

Abstract

We have studied the elastic response of actin networks with both compliant and rigid crosslinks by modeling molecular motors as force dipoles. Our finite element simulations show that for compliant crosslinkers such as filamin A, the network can be stiffened by two orders of magnitude while stiffening achieved with incompliant linkers such as scruin is significantly smaller, typically a factor of two, in excellent agreement with recent experiments. We show that the differences arise from the fact that the motors are able to stretch the compliant crosslinks to the fullest possible extent, which in turn causes to the deformation of the filaments. With increasing applied strain, the filaments further deform leading to a stiffened elastic response. When the crosslinks are incompliant, the contractile forces due to motors do not alter the network morphology in a significant manner and hence only small stiffening is observed.

Graphical abstract: Strain stiffening induced by molecular motors in active crosslinked biopolymer networks

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
01 Sep 2010
Accepted
29 Oct 2010
First published
08 Nov 2010

Soft Matter, 2011,7, 355-358

Strain stiffening induced by molecular motors in active crosslinked biopolymer networks

P. Chen and V. B. Shenoy, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 355 DOI: 10.1039/C0SM00908C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements