Abstract
The construction of in vitro assemblies of biological components that exhibit properties of living matter may shed light on the physical aspects of the dynamic reorganization that continuously occurs inside cells. See Letter p.431 Autonomous motion is a characteristic of living organisms; by consuming energy, cells and their components can generate motion without the need for externally applied force. This paper reports the creation of polymer gels, liquid crystals and emulsions that mimic this behaviour using biological molecules as building blocks. The authors assemble microtubules into hierarchical bundles and then into percolating networks. In the presence of ATP as the chemical energy source and the molecular motor protein kinesin, spatiotemporally chaotic flows are generated by creating hydrodynamic instabilities and enhanced fluid transport. When confined to the surface of emulsion droplets, the microtubule networks form two-dimensional active liquid crystals that impart autonomous motility to the emulsion droplets. This work raises the exciting possibility that chaotic behaviour of this type could be engineered to be tunable and controllable.
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