2008/02/27 by O. Lieleg, Oliver Lieleg, Mireille M. A. E. Claessens +5 · 150 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Actin #Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques #Biology #Biophysics #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Computer science #Dissipation #Elasticity (physics) #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Materials science #Mechanics #Molecular physics #Physics #Relaxation (psychology) #Thermal #Thermodynamics #Transient (computer programming) #Viscoelasticity #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.108101
published in Physical Review Letters 101(10), 108101 (American Physical Society) · 12 pages, 2 figures, including supplementary information
arxiv created 2008/02/27 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In contrast with entangled actin solutions, transiently cross-linked actin networks can provide highly elastic properties while still allowing for local rearrangements in the microstructure-on biological relevant time scales. Here, we show that thermal unbinding of transient cross-links entails local stress relaxation and energy dissipation in an intermediate elasticity dominated frequency regime. We quantify the viscoelastic response of an isotropically cross-linked actin network by experimentally tuning the off rate of the transiently cross-linking molecules, their density, and the solvent viscosity. We reproduce the measured frequency response by a semiphenomenological model that is predicated on microscopic unbinding events.