Tomorrow at @ISTAresearch.bsky.social in Vienna at 4:30 PM I will show and discuss how shapes can emerge (and disappear) from mixture of microtubules and molecular motors.
#morphogenesis

I see intraflagellar transport and dynamic steady states in living systems in this work by www.perry-cooper.com/about
Should we think of the bias in intracellular transports by "rewards"?

response to bottom clap 🤩

Each cube can emit a light and sound to tell its neighbours it has heard something.
Check www.scenocosme.com/reactive_mat... for more details on this reactive matter.

What would happen if cells would express more molecular motors ?
They would break all microtubules 😱
As shown by recent great work from @kjverhey1.bsky.social

rupress.org/jcb/article-...

Let's allow the MT to move now. It moves and propagates its pattern of motors.
Since there are more blue motors (minus end directed), the MT is moving and ... can now encounter another MT !

MT efforts to organize space is more clear with more motors and less diffusion. Now you see the point: MTs generate local accumulation of motors, which push/pull the microtubule accordingly. MTs act on motors which act on MTs. The stage is set for something to happen.

It becomes even more exciting when the transient imbalance of the two opposite motors can propel the microtubule accordingly.

This desperate attempt to sort diffusing motors is a fight against entropy and disorder. Life shall win.

Numerical simulation by Floran Lavrilleux.

Destruction is key to life.
It allows system permanent reassembly and the sharing of ressources. Competition is less fierce when sharing ☮️

@alexandra-colin.bsky.social captured this in a minimal system 🤩
See her recent publication in @currentbiology.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kPbA3QW8S...

From random gliding to ordered patterns.
The movie starts with microtubules gliding on a minus-end directed molecular motor.
Then, @bhagyanaths.bsky.social added a plus-end directed motor (magenta) to induce this polarity sorting and ordering process.
more details here:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...