Active Healing of Microtubule-Motor Networks

Abstract: Cytoskeletal networks have a self-healing property where networks can repair defects to maintain structural integrity. However, both the mechanisms and dynamics of healing remain largely unknown. Here we report a healing mechanism in microtubule-motor networks by active crosslinking. We directly generate defects using a light-controlled microtubule-motor system in O-shaped and V-shaped networks, and observe that the defects can self-heal. Combining theory and experiment, we find that the V-shaped networks must overcome internal elastic resistance in order to heal cracks, giving rise to a bifurcation of dynamics dependent on the initial opening angle of the crack: the crack merges below a critical angle and opens up at larger angles. Simulation of a continuum model reproduces the bifurcation dynamics, revealing the importance of a boundary layer where free motors and microtubules can actively crosslink and thereby heal the defects. We also formulate a simple elastic-rod model that can qualitatively predict the critical angle, which is found to be tunable by the network geometry.