ArticleNature physics2019
Self-straining of actively crosslinked microtubule networks.
Article in Nature physics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed.
- Capillary bundling of microtubules by condensates.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Human mitotic spindles as active liquid crystals: From collective behaviors to discrete filaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Three types of actomyosin rings within a common cytoplasm exhibit distinct modes of contractility.Molecular biology of the cell · 2025Article
- Article
- Three types of actomyosin rings within a common cytoplasm exhibit distinct modes of contractility.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The physical consequences of sperm gigantism.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Kinesin-Driven De-Mixing of Cytoskeleton Composites Drives Emergent Mechanical Properties.Macromolecular rapid communications · 2025Article
- Motor-driven microtubule diffusion in a photobleached dynamical coordinate system.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Lessons on the force-form-function connection in cell biology from modeling a syncytial germline.Current opinion in cell biology · 2025Review
- Article
- Structure and dynamics of motor-driven microtubule bundles.Soft matter · 2024Article
- Real-Time Tracking of Vesicles in Living Cells Reveals That Tau-Hyperphosphorylation Suppresses Unidirectional Transport by Motor Proteins.Chemical & biomedical imaging · 2024Article
- Kinesin and myosin motors compete to drive rich multiphase dynamics in programmable cytoskeletal composites.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Spatio-temporal patterning of extensile active stresses in microtubule-based active fluids.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Dissipation and energy propagation across scales in an active cytoskeletal material.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Effects of microtubule length and crowding on active microtubule network organization.iScience · 2023Article
- Competing instabilities reveal how to rationally design and control active crosslinked gels.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Reconstituting and Characterizing Actin-Microtubule Composites with Tunable Motor-Driven Dynamics and Mechanics.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2022Article
- Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cytoskeletal networks are foundational examples of active matter and central to self-organized structures in the cell. In vivo, these networks are active and densely crosslinked. Relating their large-scale dynamics to the properties of their constituents remains an unsolved problem. Here, we study an in vitro active gel made from aligned microtubules and XCTK2 kinesin motors. Using photobleaching, we demonstrate that the gel's aligned microtubules, driven by motors, continually slide past each other at a speed independent of the local microtubule polarity and motor concentration. This phenomenon is also observed, and remains unexplained, in spindles. We derive a general framework for coarse graining microtubule gels crosslinked by molecular motors from microscopic considerations. Using microtubule-microtubule coupling through a force-velocity relationship for kinesin, this theory naturally explains the experimental results: motors generate an active strain rate in regions of changing polarity, which allows microtubules of opposite polarities to slide past each other without stressing the material.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.