The positioning of stress fibers in contractile cells minimizes internal mechanical stress

[2407.07797] The positioning of stress fibers in contractile cells minimizes internal mechanical stress Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Physics > Biological Physics arXiv:2407.07797 (physics) [Submitted on 10 Jul 2024 ( v1 ), last revised 14 Oct 2024 (this version, v2)] Title: The positioning of stress fibers in contractile cells minimizes internal mechanical stress Authors: Lukas Riedel , Valentin Wössner , Dominic Kempf , Falko Ziebert , Peter Bastian , Ulrich S. Schwarz (Heidelberg University) View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: The mechanics of animal cells is strongly determined by stress fibers, which are contractile filament bundles that form dynamically in response to extracellular cues. Stress fibers allow the cell to adapt its mechanics to environmental conditions and to protect it from structural damage. While the physical description of single stress fibers is well-developed, much less is known about their spatial distribution on the level of whole cells. Here, we combine a finite element method for one-dimensional fibers embedded in an elastic bulk medium with dynamical rules for stress fiber formation based on genetic algorithms. We postulate that their main goal is to achieve minimal mechanical stress in the bulk material with as few fibers as possible. The fiber positions and configurations resulting from this optimization task alone are in good agreement with those found in experiments where cells in 3D-scaffolds were mechanically strained at one attachment point. For optimized configurations, we find that stress fibers typically run through the cell in a diagonal fashion, similar to reinforcement strategies used for composite material. Comments: 37 pages, 11 figures, 72 references Subjects: Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) ; Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft); Cell Behavior (q-bio.CB); Subcellular Processes (q-bio.SC) Cite as: arXiv:2407.07797 [physics.bio-ph] (or arXiv:2407.07797v2 [physics.bio-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.07797 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Journal reference: J. Mech. Phys. Solids 195 (2025) 105950 Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2024.105950 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Ulrich S. Schwarz [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 10 Jul 2024 16:15:07 UTC (7,971 KB) [v2] Mon, 14 Oct 2024 15:41:32 UTC (9,103 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: physics.bio-ph < prev | next > new | recent | 2024-07 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.soft physics q-bio q-bio.CB q-bio.SC References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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