Multiscale polar theory of microtubule and motor-protein assemblies

Abstract: Microtubules and motor proteins are building blocks of self-organized subcellular biological structures such as the mitotic spindle and the centrosomal microtubule array. These same ingredients can form new "bioactive" liquid-crystalline fluids that are intrinsically out of equilibrium and which display complex flows and defect dynamics. It is not yet well understood how microscopic activity, which involves polarity-dependent interactions between motor proteins and microtubules, yields such larger scale dynamical structures. In our multiscale theory, Brownian dynamics simulations of polar microtubule ensembles driven by crosslinking motors allow us to study microscopic organization and stresses. Polarity sorting and crosslink relaxation emerge as two polar-specific sources of active destabilizing stress. On larger length scales, our continuum Doi-Onsager theory captures the hydrodynamic flows generated by polarity-dependent active stresses. The results connect local polar structure to flow structures and defect dynamics.