Active flow-driven DNA remodeling generates millimeter-scale mechanical oscillations

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how active microtubule-kinesin flows can mechanically remodel embedded DNA, leading to large-scale oscillations driven purely by physical forces without chemical signaling.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal active composite system where mechanical feedback induces self-organized DNA oscillations, revealing a new physical mechanism for DNA remodeling.

Findings

DNA undergoes millimeter-scale oscillations driven by active flows.

The phase transition from disordered flow to oscillations depends on DNA length.

Oscillation frequency scales with system size and activity, matching theoretical predictions.

Abstract

In living systems, DNA undergoes continuous and rhythmic mechanical remodeling through condensation, looping, and disentangling to regulate gene expression, segregate chromosomes, and guide morphogenesis. Here, we demonstrate a purely mechanical route to rhythmic DNA reorganization in a minimal active composite of microtubules, kinesin motors, and DNA. We embed a DNA polymer in an active turbulent microtubule-kinesin fluid, creating a self-morphing material. The active flows stretch and entangle the DNA, forming a self-organized viscoelastic network that resists active stresses and affects flow over large length scales. This mechanical feedback loop progressively amplifies velocity correlations and drives a nonequilibrium phase transition tuned by DNA contour length: from disordered flow to synchronized, millimeter-scale oscillations with vortices. We rationalize the phase transition with an active-gel model that predicts a growing length scale and an oscillatory instability emerging from the interplay between activity, orientational order, and self-generated viscoelasticity, rather than chemical signaling. The dependence of the oscillation frequency on system size and activity quantitatively agrees with experiment. Thus, flow-driven DNA remodeling provides a minimal physical route to autonomous, system-spanning oscillations in three dimensions and suggests design principles for programmable soft matter that coordinates, actuates, and reshapes itself.