Branching, capping, and severing in dynamic actin structures

Ajay Gopinathan, Kun Chun Lee, J. M. Schwarz, Andrea J. Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Branched actin networks at the leading edge of a crawling cell evolve via protein-regulated processes such as polymerization, depolymerization, capping, branching, and severing. A formulation of these processes is presented and analyzed to study steady-state network morphology. In bulk, we identify several scaling regimes in severing and branching protein concentrations and find that the coupling between severing and branching is optimally exploited for conditions in vivo. Near the leading edge, we find qualitative agreement with the in vivo morphology.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number058103
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume99
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2 2007

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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