Active chemo-mechanical solitons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how chemical signals can efficiently drive mechanical solitons in biological systems, revealing fundamental principles of chemo-mechanical coupling in cellular and tissue dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal model showing how chemical activity can generate and guide localized mechanical waves, advancing understanding of chemo-mechanical interactions.

Findings

Mechanical signals driven by chemical cues are highly efficient.

Localized chemo-mechanical solitons can propagate directionally.

The model elucidates principles underlying biological signal transmission.

Abstract

In many biological systems localized mechanical information is transmitted by mechanically neutral chemical signals. Typical examples include contraction waves in acto-myosin cortex at cellular scale and peristaltic waves at tissue level. In such systems, chemical activity is transformed into mechanical deformation by distributed motor-type mechanisms represented by continuum degrees of freedom. To elucidate the underlying principles of chemo-mechanical coupling, we here present the simplest example, involving directional motion of a localized solitary wave in a distributed mechanical system, guided by a purely chemical cue. Our main result is that mechanical signals can be driven by chemical activity in a highly efficient manner.