Monday, 25 April, 2016

Active Curved Polymers Form Vortex Patterns on Membranes

J. Denk, L. Huber, E. Reithmann and E. Frey -
Physical Review Letters, 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.178301 (2016)

Recent in vitro experiments with FtsZ polymers show self-organization into different dynamic patterns, including structures reminiscent of the bacterial Z ring. We model FtsZ polymers as active particles moving along chiral, circular paths by Brownian dynamics simulations and a Boltzmann approach. Our two conceptually different methods point to a generic phase behavior. At intermediate particle densities, we find self-organization into vortex structures including closed rings. Moreover, we show that the dynamics at the onset of pattern formation is described by a generalized complex Ginzburg-Landau equation.

Article on journal´s webpage