Instrinsic oscillations of treadmilling microtubules in a motor bath

TL;DR

This paper investigates how motor proteins and treadmilling dynamics induce intrinsic oscillations in microtubules, revealing mechanisms for force regulation and stability in cellular structures.

Contribution

It introduces a model linking motor kinetics and microtubule treadmilling to oscillatory behaviors and bistability, advancing understanding of cytoskeletal dynamics.

Findings

Coupling motor velocity with force induces oscillations.

Motor exchange kinetics can stabilize oscillations.

Possible emergence of bistability in microtubule systems.

Abstract

We analyse the dynamics of overlapping antiparallel treadmilling microtubules in the presence of crosslinking processive motor proteins that counterbalance an external force. We show that coupling the force-dependent velocity of motors and the kinetics of motor exchange with a bath in the presence of treadmilling leads generically to oscillatory behavior. In addition we show that coupling the polymerization kinetics to the external force through the kinetics of the crosslinking motors can stabilize the oscillatory instability into finite-amplitude nonlinear oscillations and may lead to other scenarios, including bistability.