Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex.
The actin cortex is an active adaptive material, embedded with complex regulatory networks that can sense, generate, and transmit mechanical forces. The cortex exhibits a wide range of dynamic behaviours, from generating pulsatory contractions and travelling waves to forming organised structures. De...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022-03-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009981 |
| _version_ | 1818208964688478208 |
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| author | Michael F Staddon Edwin M Munro Shiladitya Banerjee |
| author_facet | Michael F Staddon Edwin M Munro Shiladitya Banerjee |
| author_sort | Michael F Staddon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The actin cortex is an active adaptive material, embedded with complex regulatory networks that can sense, generate, and transmit mechanical forces. The cortex exhibits a wide range of dynamic behaviours, from generating pulsatory contractions and travelling waves to forming organised structures. Despite the progress in characterising the biochemical and mechanical components of the actin cortex, the emergent dynamics of this mechanochemical system is poorly understood. Here we develop a reaction-diffusion model for the RhoA signalling network, the upstream regulator for actomyosin assembly and contractility, coupled to an active actomyosin gel, to investigate how the interplay between chemical signalling and mechanical forces regulates stresses and patterns in the cortex. We demonstrate that mechanochemical feedback in the cortex acts to destabilise homogeneous states and robustly generate pulsatile contractions. By tuning active stress in the system, we show that the cortex can generate propagating contraction pulses, form network structures, or exhibit topological turbulence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T04:53:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5a7ce46e56aa41339a09e0ab4f019315 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T04:53:11Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-5a7ce46e56aa41339a09e0ab4f0193152022-12-22T00:37:25ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582022-03-01183e100998110.1371/journal.pcbi.1009981Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex.Michael F StaddonEdwin M MunroShiladitya BanerjeeThe actin cortex is an active adaptive material, embedded with complex regulatory networks that can sense, generate, and transmit mechanical forces. The cortex exhibits a wide range of dynamic behaviours, from generating pulsatory contractions and travelling waves to forming organised structures. Despite the progress in characterising the biochemical and mechanical components of the actin cortex, the emergent dynamics of this mechanochemical system is poorly understood. Here we develop a reaction-diffusion model for the RhoA signalling network, the upstream regulator for actomyosin assembly and contractility, coupled to an active actomyosin gel, to investigate how the interplay between chemical signalling and mechanical forces regulates stresses and patterns in the cortex. We demonstrate that mechanochemical feedback in the cortex acts to destabilise homogeneous states and robustly generate pulsatile contractions. By tuning active stress in the system, we show that the cortex can generate propagating contraction pulses, form network structures, or exhibit topological turbulence.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009981 |
| spellingShingle | Michael F Staddon Edwin M Munro Shiladitya Banerjee Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex. |
| title_full | Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex. |
| title_fullStr | Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex. |
| title_short | Pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex. |
| title_sort | pulsatile contractions and pattern formation in excitable actomyosin cortex |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009981 |
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