Transverse Fluctuations Control the Assembly of Semiflexible Filaments

V Sorichetti and M Lenz, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 131, 228401 (2023).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.228401

The kinetics of the assembly of semiflexible filaments through end-to- end annealing is key to the structure of the cytoskeleton, but is not understood. We analyze this problem through scaling theory and simulations, and uncover a regime where filaments' ends find each other through bending fluctuations without the need for the whole filament to diffuse. This results in a very substantial speedup of assembly in physiological regimes, and could help with understanding the dynamics of actin and intermediate filaments in biological processes such as wound healing and cell division.

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