Abstract
The motility of most eucaryotic cells is based on constitution and contraction of an actomyosin network. In some in—vitro experiments numerous consecutive waves of gel assembly and gel contraction have been observed when cell free cytoplasmic extracts were incubated. The corresponding model considers the cytoplasmic matrix (F—actin, myosin, G—actin, ATP,….) as a highly viscous two component mixture. The components are the solution and the interpenetrating fibroid network phase. Application of mass and momentum conservation laws of fluid mechanics to both components leads to a system of partial differential equations of hyperbolic—elliptic type. The presented numerical solutions of these equations reflect the experimentally observed autonomous recurrent contraction waves.
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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Pohl, T. (1990). Periodic Contraction Waves in Cytoplasmic Extracts. In: Alt, W., Hoffmann, G. (eds) Biological Motion. Lecture Notes in Biomathematics, vol 89. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-51664-1_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-51664-1_6
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