title: Collision induced spatial organization of microtubules.
abstract: The dynamic behavior of microtubules in solution can be strongly modified by interactions with walls or other structures. We examine here a microtubule growth model where the increase in size of the plus-end is perturbed by collisions with other microtubules. We show that such a simple mechanism of constrained growth can induce ordered structures and patterns from an initially isotropic and homogeneous suspension. We find that microtubules self-organize locally in randomly oriented domains that grow and compete with each other. A weak orientation bias, similar to the one induced by gravity or cellular boundaries is enough to influence the domain growth direction, eventually leading to a macroscopic sample orientation.
authors.affiliation: Institut Charles Sadron CNRS UPR 22, 67083 Strasbourg Cedex, France. vladimir.baulin@urv.cat
authors.forename: Vladimir A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Baulin
authors.forename: Carlos M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thalmann
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D007700:Kinetics; D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013997:Time Factors