Contractile stress generation by actomyosin gels.

A E Carlsson
Author Information
  1. A E Carlsson: Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.

Abstract

The tension generated by randomly distributed myosin minifilaments in an actin gel is evaluated using a rigorous theorem relating the surface forces acting on the gel to the forces exerted by the myosins. The maximum tension generated per myosin depends strongly on the lengths of the myosin minifilaments and the actin filaments. The result is used to place an upper bound on the tension that can be generated during cytokinesis. It is found that actomyosin contraction by itself generates too little force for ring contraction during cytokinesis unless the actin filaments are tightly crosslinked into inextensible units much longer than a single actin filament.

MeSH Term

Actins
Actomyosin
Computer Simulation
Elasticity
Gels
Models, Chemical
Models, Molecular
Molecular Motor Proteins
Motion
Myosins
Protein Binding
Protein Conformation
Stress, Mechanical
Tensile Strength

Chemicals

Actins
Gels
Molecular Motor Proteins
Actomyosin
Myosins

Word Cloud

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