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Soft Matter

Where physics meets chemistry meets biology for fundamental soft matter research.



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Soft Matter, 2009, 5, 2033 - 2036, DOI: 10.1039/b817927a

Molecular dynamics simulation of F-actin reveals the role of cross-linkers in semi-flexible filament assembly

Lam T. Nguyen, Wei Yang, Qi Wang and Linda S. Hirst

Hierarchically ordered protein networks are formed in solution by the self-assembly of F-actin, a semi-flexible biopolymer, in the presence of cross-linkers. We model the assembly of a 3D branching network of filament bundles using a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, finding excellent agreement with experimental observations. We examine the role of cross-linker density on network morphology and filament curvature and observe a clear evolution from a loose single filament network to a network of bundles generated by cross-linker-induced branch points.

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