New Proposed Mechanism of Actin-Polymerization-Driven Motility

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel numerical simulation of actin-driven motility, revealing how elastic filaments can generate forces to propel objects, with results aligning with experimental data and offering new insights into cellular movement mechanisms.

Contribution

It presents the first simulation of actin-driven propulsion using a Brownian dynamics model, demonstrating force generation and speed variation consistent with experiments.

Findings

Force exerted by elastic filaments can propel objects.

Speed varies non-monotonically with protein concentrations.

Simulation results match experimental observations.

Abstract

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.