title: Fluctuations, dynamics, and the stretch-coil transition of single actin filaments in extensional flows.
abstract: Semiflexible polymers subject to hydrodynamic forcing play an important role in cytoskeletal motions in the cell, particularly when filaments guide molecular motors whose motions create flows. Near hyperbolic stagnation points, filaments experience a competition between bending elasticity and tension and are predicted to display suppressed thermal fluctuations in the extensional regime and a buckling instability under compression. Using a microfluidic cross-flow geometry, we verify these predictions in detail, including a fluctuation-rounded stretch-coil transition of actin filaments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Vasily
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kantsler
authors.forename: Raymond E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Goldstein
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D044085:Microfluidics; D008954:Models, Biological; D011312:Pressure