Curved trajectories of actin-based motility in two dimensions

¹ Department of Physics, National Central University - Jhongli, 32001, Taiwan R.O.C.
² Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences - Hsinchu, 30113, Taiwan R.O.C.
³ Institiute of Physics, Academia Sinica - Taipei, 11529, Taiwan R.O.C.

Received: 15 December 2011
Accepted: 10 April 2012

Abstract

Recent experiments have reported fascinating geometrical trajectories for actin-based motility of bacteria Listeria monocytogenes and functionalized beads. To understand the physical mechanism for these trajectories, we constructed a phenomenological model to study the motion of an actin-propelled disk in two dimensions. In our model, the force and actin density on the surface of the disk are influenced by the translation and rotation of the disk, which in turn is induced by the asymmetric distributions of those densities. We show that this feedback can destabilize a straight trajectory, leading to circular, S-shape and other geometrical trajectories observed in the experiments through bifurcations in the distributions of the force and actin density. The relation between our model and the models for self-propelled deformable particles is emphasized and discussed.