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Sarcomeric Pattern Formation by Actin Cluster Coalescence
Figure 6
Actin filament length control by severing.
A. Filament severing provides a simple physical mechanism for actin filament length control, see main text. In an idealized scenario, an actin filament (blue) binds a severing agent (scissors) with a rate 
that is proportional to its length 
at a random position. The filament is then cut at the binding position, and its minus-end facing fragment is subsequently depolymerized. B. Actin filament severing results in a unimodular filament length distribution at steady state, see histrogram (gray) and analytical expression (red, see SI text S1). For the severing rate used, 
, mean filament length 
, and filament length variability parameter, 
. C. Simulation of an acto-myosin bundle as in figure 3, but with actin filament severing as described in panel A. Shown is a snap-shot of the simulations at time 
(actin filaments: blue and red; myosin: magenta; end-tracking crosslinker: green), as well as the averaged structure factor (black curve, gray region indicates mean
s.e., 
).
doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002544.g006