Redundancy and cooperativity in the mechanics of compositely crosslinked filamentous networks

TL;DR

This study develops a framework combining simulations and theory to analyze how different crosslinkers affect the mechanics of filamentous networks, revealing that crosslinker type and concentration critically influence network stiffness and integrity.

Contribution

It introduces a combined numerical and theoretical approach to explore the roles of different crosslinkers in filamentous network mechanics, highlighting the effects of cooperativity and redundancy.

Findings

Angle-constraining crosslinkers lower the threshold for mechanical integrity.

Cooperative effects increase network stiffness and reduce non-affine deformations.

Networks with only freely-rotating crosslinks behave similarly to mixed networks.

Abstract

The actin cytoskeleton in living cells has many types of crosslinkers. The mechanical interplay between these different crosslinker types is an open issue in cytoskeletal mechanics. We develop a framework to study the cooperativity and redundancy in the mechanics of filamentous networks with two types of crosslinkers: crosslinkers that allow free rotations of filaments and crosslinkers that do not. The framework consists of numerical simulations and an effective medium theory on a percolating triangular lattice. We find that the introduction of angle-constraining crosslinkers significantly lowers the filament concentrations required for these networks to attain mechanical integrity. This cooperative effect also enhances the stiffness of the network and suppresses non-affine deformations at a fixed filament concentration. We further find that semiflexible networks with only freely-rotating crosslinks are mechanically very similar to compositely crosslinked flexible networks with both networks exhibiting the same scaling behavior. We show that the network mechanics can either be redundant or cooperative depending on the relative energy scale of filament bending to the energy stored in the angle-constraining crosslinkers, and the relative concentration of crosslinkers. Our results may have implications for understanding the role of multiple crosslinkers even in a system without bundle formation or other structural motifs.