Emergence of Metachronal Waves in Active Microtubule Arrays

TL;DR

This paper models the hydrodynamic interactions in microtubule arrays to understand the spontaneous emergence of metachronal waves, aligning simulations with experimental observations and identifying conditions for wave formation.

Contribution

It introduces a first-principles hydrodynamic model for microtubule arrays and explores the parameter regimes leading to metachronal wave emergence.

Findings

Metachronal waves emerge under specific parameter regimes.

Simulations match experimental observations by Sanchez et al.

Other microtubule motions are categorized outside these regimes.

Abstract

The physical mechanism behind the spontaneous formation of metachronal waves in microtubule arrays in a low Reynolds number fluid has been of interest for the past several years, yet is still not well understood. We present a model implementing the hydrodynamic coupling hypothesis from first principles, and use this model to simulate kinesin-driven microtubule arrays and observe their emergent behavior. The results of simulations are compared to known experimental observations by Sanchez et al. By varying parameters, we determine regimes in which the metachronal wave phenomenon emerges, and categorize other types of possible microtubule motion outside these regimes.