Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22273 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866916870751256576 |
|---|---|
| author | Kelleher, Colm P. Maddu, Suryanarayana Basaran, Mustafa Müller-Reichert, Thomas Shelley, Michael J. Needleman, Daniel J. |
| author_facet | Kelleher, Colm P. Maddu, Suryanarayana Basaran, Mustafa Müller-Reichert, Thomas Shelley, Michael J. Needleman, Daniel J. |
| contents | How thousands of microtubules and molecular motors self-organize into spindles remains poorly understood. By combining static, nanometer-resolution, large-scale electron tomography reconstructions and dynamic, optical-resolution, polarized light microscopy, we test an active liquid crystal continuum model of mitotic spindles in human tissue culture cells. The predictions of this coarse-grained theory quantitatively agree with the experimentally measured spindle morphology and fluctuation spectra. These findings argue that local interactions and polymerization produce collective alignment, diffusive-like motion, and polar transport which govern the behaviors of the spindle's microtubule network, and provide a means to measure the spindle's material properties. This work demonstrates that a coarse-grained theory featuring measurable, physically-interpretable parameters can quantitatively describe the mechanical behavior and self-organization of human mitotic spindles. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_22273 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Active Liquid Crystal Theory Explains the Collective Organization of Microtubules in Human Mitotic Spindles Kelleher, Colm P. Maddu, Suryanarayana Basaran, Mustafa Müller-Reichert, Thomas Shelley, Michael J. Needleman, Daniel J. Biological Physics How thousands of microtubules and molecular motors self-organize into spindles remains poorly understood. By combining static, nanometer-resolution, large-scale electron tomography reconstructions and dynamic, optical-resolution, polarized light microscopy, we test an active liquid crystal continuum model of mitotic spindles in human tissue culture cells. The predictions of this coarse-grained theory quantitatively agree with the experimentally measured spindle morphology and fluctuation spectra. These findings argue that local interactions and polymerization produce collective alignment, diffusive-like motion, and polar transport which govern the behaviors of the spindle's microtubule network, and provide a means to measure the spindle's material properties. This work demonstrates that a coarse-grained theory featuring measurable, physically-interpretable parameters can quantitatively describe the mechanical behavior and self-organization of human mitotic spindles. |
| title | Active Liquid Crystal Theory Explains the Collective Organization of Microtubules in Human Mitotic Spindles |
| topic | Biological Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22273 |