Molecular investigation of the mechanical properties of single actin filaments based on vibration analyses

Abstract

The mechanical vibration properties of single actin filaments from 50 to 288 nm are investigated by the molecular dynamics simulation in this study. The natural frequencies obtained from the molecular simulations agree with those obtained from the analytical solution of the equivalent Euler–Bernoulli beam model. Through the convergence study of the mechanical properties with respect to the filament length, it was found that the Euler–Bernoulli beam model can only be reliably used when the single actin filament is of the order of hundreds of nanometre scale. This molecular investigation not only provides the evidence for the use of the continuum beam model in characterising the mechanical properties of single actin filaments, but also clarifies the criteria for the effective use of the Euler–Bernoulli beam model.

Keywords::

• actin filament
• mechanical vibration
• flexural rigidity
• Young's modulus
• coarse-grained molecular dynamics

Acknowledgements

Support from the ARC Future Fellowship grant (FT100100172) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Dr T. Oda for the help in the atomic structure modelling of actin filament.