Nematic and Polar order in Active Filament Solutions

TL;DR

This paper models active filament solutions to understand how motor proteins influence filament organization, revealing phase behaviors and inhomogeneous structures driven by motor activity and polarity.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic model linking motor polarity and filament interactions to phase diagrams and spatial structures in active filament solutions.

Findings

Motor polarity determines filament organization in different phases.

Motor-induced bundling leads to inhomogeneous filament structures.

Phase diagram includes isotropic, polarized, and nematic states.

Abstract

Using a microscopic model of interacting polar biofilaments and motor proteins, we characterize the phase diagram of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous states in terms of experimental parameters. The polarity of motor clusters is key in determining the organization of the filaments in homogeneous isotropic, polarized and nematic states, while motor-induced bundling yields spatially inhomogeneous structures.