Self-organized Pattern Formation in Motor-Microtubule Mixtures

Abstract

We propose and study a hydrodynamic model for pattern formation in mixtures of molecular motors and microtubules. The steady state patterns we obtain in different regimes of parameter space include arrangements of vortices and asters separately as well as aster-vortex mixtures and fully disordered states. Such stable steady states are observed in experiments in vitro. The sequence of patterns obtained in the experiments can be associated with smooth trajectories in a non-equilibrium phase diagram for our model.