Collective Dynamics of Active Cytoskeletal Networks

Self organization mechanisms are essential for the cytoskeleton to adapt to the requirements of living cells. They rely on the intricate interplay of cytoskeletal filaments, crosslinking proteins and molecular motors. Here we present an in vitro minimal model system consisting of actin filaments, fascin and myosin-II filaments exhibiting pulsatile collective dynamics and superdiffusive transport properties. Both phenomena rely on the complex competition of crosslinking molecules and motor filaments in the network. They are only observed if the relative strength of the binding of myosin-II filaments to the actin network allows exerting high enough forces to unbind actin/fascin crosslinks. This is shown by varying the binding strength of the acto-myosin bond and by combining the experiments with phenomenological simulations based on simple interaction rules.