title: Physical model of contractile ring initiation in dividing cells.
abstract: We present a physical mechanism to describe initiation of the contractile ring during cell division. The model couples the membrane curvature with the contractile forces produced by protein clusters attached to the membrane. These protein clusters are mobile on the membrane and possess either an isotropic or an anisotropic spontaneous curvature. Our results show that under these conditions the contraction force gives rise to an instability that corresponds in a closed cellular system to the initiation of the contractile ring. We find a quantization of this process at distinct length-scales, which we compare to available data for different types of eukaryote cells.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel. roie@wisemail.weizmann.ac.il
authors.forename: Roie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shlomovitz
authors.forename: Nir S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Gov
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D002468:Cell Physiological Phenomena; D048429:Cell Size; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D008560:Membrane Fluidity / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013314:Stress, Mechanical