2008/06/06 by Kun-Chun Lee, Andrea J. Liu
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Actin #Biological system #Biology #Biophysics #Brownian dynamics #Brownian motion #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Composite material #Materials science #Mechanics #Mechanism (biology) #Micro and Nano Robotics #Motility #Nanotechnology #Nucleation #Physics #Polymer #Polymer Surface Interaction Studies #Polymerization #Propulsion #Protein filament #Quantum mechanics #Thermodynamics #q-bio.CB #q-bio.SC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1529/biophysj.108.134783
31 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2008/06/06 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We present the first numerical simulation of actin-driven propulsion by elastic filaments. Specifically, we use a Brownian dynamics formulation of the dendritic nucleation model of actin-driven propulsion. We show that the model leads to a self-assembled network that exerts forces on a disk and pushes it with an average speed. This simulation approach is the first to observe a speed that varies non-monotonically with the concentration of branching proteins (Arp2/3), capping protein and depolymerization rate (ADF), in accord with experimental observations. Our results suggest a new interpretation of the origin of motility that can be tested readily by experiment.