POLIZZI, Stephano; ARNEODO, Alain; PEREZ-RECHE, Francisco J.; ARGOUL, Françoise

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POLIZZI, Stephano

ARNEODO, Alain

PEREZ-RECHE, Francisco J.

Langue

Document de travail - Pré-publication

Résumé en anglais

Actin is the major cytoskeletal protein of mammal cells that forms microfilaments organized into higher-order structures by a dynamic assembly-disassembly mechanism with cross-linkers. These networks provide the cells with mechanical support, and allow cells to change their shape, migrate, divide and develop a mechanical communication with their environment. The quick adaptation of these networks upon stretch or compression is important for cell survival in real situations. Using atomic force microscopy to poke living cells with sharp tips, we revealed that they respond to a local and quick shear through a cascade of random and abrupt ruptures of their cytoskeleton, suggesting that they behave as a quasi-rigid random network of intertwined filaments. Surprisingly, the distribution of the strength and the size of these rupture events did not follow power-law statistics but log-normal statistics, suggesting that the mechanics of living cells would not fit into self-organized critical systems.< Réduire

Mots clés en anglais

random network

avalanches

log-normal distributions

power-law

cell plasticity

cytoskeleton ruptures

Origine

Importé de hal

Unités de recherche

Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine (LOMA) - UMR 5798