Islands of conformational stability for filopodia.
Filopodia are long, thin protrusions formed when bundles of fibers grow outwardly from a cell surface while remaining closed in a membrane tube. We study the subtle issue of the mechanical stability of such filopodia and how this depends on the deformation of the membrane that arises when the fiber...
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doaj-4793fc6cd42f407fb0b3147af12120712020-11-25T01:20:00ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032013-01-0183e5901010.1371/journal.pone.0059010Islands of conformational stability for filopodia.D Robert DanielsMatthew S TurnerFilopodia are long, thin protrusions formed when bundles of fibers grow outwardly from a cell surface while remaining closed in a membrane tube. We study the subtle issue of the mechanical stability of such filopodia and how this depends on the deformation of the membrane that arises when the fiber bundle adopts a helical configuration. We calculate the ground state conformation of such filopodia, taking into account the steric interaction between the membrane and the enclosed semiflexible fiber bundle. For typical filopodia we find that a minimum number of fibers is required for filopodium stability. Our calculation elucidates how experimentally observed filopodia can obviate the classical Euler buckling condition and remain stable up to several tens of μm. We briefly discuss how experimental observation of the results obtained in this work for the helical-like deformations of enclosing membrane tubes in filopodia could possibly be observed in the acrosomal reactions of the sea cucumber Thyone, and the horseshoe crab Limulus. Any realistic future theories for filopodium stability are likely to rely on an accurate treatment of such steric effects, as analysed in this work.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3605414?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
D Robert Daniels Matthew S Turner |
spellingShingle |
D Robert Daniels Matthew S Turner Islands of conformational stability for filopodia. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
D Robert Daniels Matthew S Turner |
author_sort |
D Robert Daniels |
title |
Islands of conformational stability for filopodia. |
title_short |
Islands of conformational stability for filopodia. |
title_full |
Islands of conformational stability for filopodia. |
title_fullStr |
Islands of conformational stability for filopodia. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Islands of conformational stability for filopodia. |
title_sort |
islands of conformational stability for filopodia. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2013-01-01 |
description |
Filopodia are long, thin protrusions formed when bundles of fibers grow outwardly from a cell surface while remaining closed in a membrane tube. We study the subtle issue of the mechanical stability of such filopodia and how this depends on the deformation of the membrane that arises when the fiber bundle adopts a helical configuration. We calculate the ground state conformation of such filopodia, taking into account the steric interaction between the membrane and the enclosed semiflexible fiber bundle. For typical filopodia we find that a minimum number of fibers is required for filopodium stability. Our calculation elucidates how experimentally observed filopodia can obviate the classical Euler buckling condition and remain stable up to several tens of μm. We briefly discuss how experimental observation of the results obtained in this work for the helical-like deformations of enclosing membrane tubes in filopodia could possibly be observed in the acrosomal reactions of the sea cucumber Thyone, and the horseshoe crab Limulus. Any realistic future theories for filopodium stability are likely to rely on an accurate treatment of such steric effects, as analysed in this work. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3605414?pdf=render |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT drobertdaniels islandsofconformationalstabilityforfilopodia AT matthewsturner islandsofconformationalstabilityforfilopodia |
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