skip to main content


Title: Active nematic order and dynamic lane formation of microtubules driven by membrane-bound diffusing motors
Dynamic lane formation and long-range active nematic alignment are reported using a geometry in which kinesin motors are directly coupled to a lipid bilayer, allowing for in-plane motor diffusion during microtubule gliding. We use fluorescence microscopy to image protein distributions in and below the dense two-dimensional microtubule layer, revealing evidence of diffusion-enabled kinesin restructuring within the fluid membrane substrate as microtubules collectively glide above. We find that the lipid membrane acts to promote filament–filament alignment within the gliding layer, enhancing the formation of a globally aligned active nematic state. We also report the emergence of an intermediate, locally ordered state in which apolar dynamic lanes of nematically aligned microtubules migrate across the substrate. To understand this emergent behavior, we implement a continuum model obtained from coarse graining a collection of self-propelled rods, with propulsion set by the local motor kinetics. Tuning the microtubule and kinesin concentrations as well as active propulsion in these simulations reveals that increasing motor activity promotes dynamic nematic lane formation. Simulations and experiments show that, following fluid bilayer substrate mediated spatial motor restructuring, the total motor concentration becomes enriched below the microtubule lanes that they drive, with the feedback leading to more dynamic lanes. Our results have implications for membrane-coupled active nematics in vivo as well as for engineering dynamic and reconfigurable materials where the structural elements and power sources can dynamically colocalize, enabling efficient mechanical work.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2112675 1547848 1808926
NSF-PAR ID:
10336553
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume:
118
Issue:
52
ISSN:
0027-8424
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract

    Motor-based transport mechanisms are critical for a wide range of eukaryotic cell functions, including the transport of vesicle cargos over long distances. Our understanding of the factors that control and regulate motors when bound to a lipid substrate is however incomplete. We used microtubule gliding assays on a lipid bilayer substrate to investigate the role of membrane diffusion in kinesin-1 on/off binding kinetics and thereby transport velocity. Fluorescence imaging experiments demonstrate motor clustering on single microtubules due to membrane diffusion in the absence of ATP, followed by rapid ATP-induced dissociation during gliding. Our experimental data combined with analytical modeling show that the on/off binding kinetics of the motors are impacted by diffusion and, as a consequence, both the effective binding and unbinding rates for motors are much lower than the expected bare rates. Our results suggest that motor diffusion in the membrane can play a significant role in transport by impacting motor kinetics and can therefore function as a regulator of intracellular transport dynamics.

     
    more » « less
  2. null (Ed.)
    In active matter systems, self-propelled particles can self-organize to undergo collective motion, leading to persistent dynamical behavior out of equilibrium. In cells, cytoskeletal filaments and motor proteins form complex structures important for cell mechanics, motility, and division. Collective dynamics of cytoskeletal systems can be reconstituted using filament gliding experiments, in which cytoskeletal filaments are propelled by surface-bound motor proteins. These experiments have observed diverse dynamical states, including flocks, polar streams, swirling vortices, and single-filament spirals. Recent experiments with microtubules and kinesin motor proteins found that the collective behavior of gliding filaments can be tuned by altering the concentration of the crowding macromolecule methylcellulose in solution. Increasing the methylcellulose concentration reduced filament crossing, promoted alignment, and led to a transition from active, isotropically oriented filaments to locally aligned polar streams. This emergence of collective motion is typically explained as an increase in alignment interactions by Vicsek-type models of active polar particles. However, it is not yet understood how steric interactions and bending stiffness modify the collective behavior of active semiflexible filaments. Here we use simulations of driven filaments with tunable soft repulsion and rigidity in order to better understand how the interplay between filament flexibility and steric effects can lead to different active dynamic states. We find that increasing filament stiffness decreases the probability of filament alignment, yet increases collective motion and long-range order, in contrast to the assumptions of a Vicsek-type model. We identify swirling flocks, polar streams, buckling bands, and spirals, and describe the physics that govern transitions between these states. In addition to repulsion and driving, tuning filament stiffness can promote collective behavior, and controls the transition between active isotropic filaments, locally aligned flocks, and polar streams. 
    more » « less
  3. Merks, Roeland M.H. (Ed.)
    In cells, multiple molecular motors work together as teams to carry cargoes such as vesicles and organelles over long distances to their destinations by stepping along a network of cytoskeletal filaments. How motors that typically mechanically interfere with each other, work together as teams is unclear. Here we explored the possibility that purely physical mechanisms, such as cargo surface fluidity, may potentially enhance teamwork, both at the single motor and cargo level. To explore these mechanisms, we developed a three dimensional simulation of cargo transport along microtubules by teams of kinesin-1 motors. We accounted for cargo membrane fluidity by explicitly simulating the Brownian dynamics of motors on the cargo surface and considered both the load and ATP dependence of single motor functioning. Our simulations show that surface fluidity could lead to the reduction of negative mechanical interference between kinesins and enhanced load sharing thereby increasing the average duration of single motors on the filament. This, along with a cooperative increase in on-rates as more motors bind leads to enhanced collective processivity. At the cargo level, surface fluidity makes more motors available for binding, which can act synergistically with the above effects to further increase transport distances though this effect is significant only at low ATP or high motor density. Additionally, the fluid surface allows for the clustering of motors at a well defined location on the surface relative to the microtubule and the fluid-coupled motors can exert more collective force per motor against loads. Our work on understanding how teamwork arises in cargo-coupled motors allows us to connect single motor properties to overall transport, sheds new light on cellular processes, reconciles existing observations, encourages new experimental validation efforts and can also suggest new ways of improving the transport of artificial cargo powered by motor teams. 
    more » « less
  4. Sharma, Pradeep (Ed.)
    Abstract

    The cellular cytoskeleton relies on diverse populations of motors, filaments, and binding proteins acting in concert to enable nonequilibrium processes ranging from mitosis to chemotaxis. The cytoskeleton's versatile reconfigurability, programmed by interactions between its constituents, makes it a foundational active matter platform. However, current active matter endeavors are limited largely to single force-generating components acting on a single substrate—far from the composite cytoskeleton in cells. Here, we engineer actin–microtubule (MT) composites, driven by kinesin and myosin motors and tuned by crosslinkers, to ballistically restructure and flow with speeds that span three orders of magnitude depending on the composite formulation and time relative to the onset of motor activity. Differential dynamic microscopy analyses reveal that kinesin and myosin compete to delay the onset of acceleration and suppress discrete restructuring events, while passive crosslinking of either actin or MTs has an opposite effect. Our minimal advection–diffusion model and spatial correlation analyses correlate these dynamics to structure, with motor antagonism suppressing reconfiguration and demixing, while crosslinking enhances clustering. Despite the rich formulation space and emergent formulation-dependent structures, the nonequilibrium dynamics across all composites and timescales can be organized into three classes—slow isotropic reorientation, fast directional flow, and multimode restructuring. Moreover, our mathematical model demonstrates that diverse structural motifs can arise simply from the interplay between motor-driven advection and frictional drag. These general features of our platform facilitate applicability to other active matter systems and shed light on diverse ways that cytoskeletal components can cooperate or compete to enable wide-ranging cellular processes.

     
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    In vitro gliding assay, microtubule translocation by kinesin motor proteins on a surface, has been used as an engineering tool in analyte detection, molecular cargo transport, and other applications. Although controlling the moving direction is often necessary to realize these applications, current direction control methods focus largely on lithographic microfabrication of tracks or external fields on the microtubules. These methods are effective, but are relatively complicated. In addition, they cannot target particular microtubules without affecting others. In this study, we propose a facile approach that can make local direction changes for selected microtubules using a polystyrene particle as a circular motion center and a DNA double helix with streptavidin as a capture arm. The DNA arm captures a microtubule in the close proximity of the immobilized particle via biotin–streptavidin interaction and changes the moving direction ~10° on average. In contrast, no significant direction changes are observed other than random variations with streptavidin‐less DNA arms (normal distribution centered at 0°), similar to regular motility assay. The particle‐assisted local direction change scheme is compared with a flow field‐based ensemble method. The combination of flow and kinesin interactions with each microtubule exerts a force to change the direction, ultimately aligning it to the flow field, regardless of its initial direction. A simple model based on the force balance predicts the time needed for such an alignment. Overall, the particle‐based local scheme is distinct and different from ensemble methods such as crossflow that changes directions of all microtubules in the field, thus offering unique utility in engineering applications.

     
    more » « less