An aster of microtubules is a set of flexible polar filaments with dynamic plus ends that irradiate from a common location at which the minus ends of the filaments are found. Processive soluble oligomeric motor complexes can bind simultaneously to two microtubules, and thus exert forces between two asters. Using computer simulations, I have explored systematically the possible steady-state regimes reached by two asters under the action of various kinds of oligomeric motors. As expected, motor complexes can induce the asters to fuse, for example when the complexes consist only of minus end–directed motors, or to fully separate, when the motors are plus end directed. More surprisingly, complexes made of two motors of opposite directionalities can also lead to antiparallel interactions between overlapping microtubules that are stable and sustained, like those seen in mitotic spindle structures. This suggests that such heterocomplexes could have a significant biological role, if they exist in the cell.
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16 September 2002
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September 16 2002
Computer simulations reveal motor properties generating stable antiparallel microtubule interactions
François Nédélec
François Nédélec
Cell Biology and Biophysics Program, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
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François Nédélec
Cell Biology and Biophysics Program, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Address correspondence to François Nédélec, Cell Biology and Biophysics Program, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstrasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. Tel.: 49-6221-387-360. Fax: 49-6221-387-512. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abbreviations used in this paper: 1D, one dimension; 2D, two dimensions; 3D, three dimensions.
Received:
February 12 2002
Revision Received:
July 30 2002
Accepted:
July 30 2002
Online ISSN: 1540-8140
Print ISSN: 0021-9525
The Rockefeller University Press
2002
J Cell Biol (2002) 158 (6): 1005–1015.
Article history
Received:
February 12 2002
Revision Received:
July 30 2002
Accepted:
July 30 2002
Citation
François Nédélec; Computer simulations reveal motor properties generating stable antiparallel microtubule interactions . J Cell Biol 16 September 2002; 158 (6): 1005–1015. doi: https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.200202051
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