Cargando…
Emergent mechanics of biological structures
Mechanical force organizes life at all scales, from molecules to cells and tissues. Although we have made remarkable progress unraveling the mechanics of life's individual building blocks, our understanding of how they give rise to the mechanics of larger-scale biological structures is still po...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The American Society for Cell Biology
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230603/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E14-03-0784 |
_version_ | 1782344298059005952 |
---|---|
author | Dumont, Sophie Prakash, Manu |
author_facet | Dumont, Sophie Prakash, Manu |
author_sort | Dumont, Sophie |
collection | PubMed |
description | Mechanical force organizes life at all scales, from molecules to cells and tissues. Although we have made remarkable progress unraveling the mechanics of life's individual building blocks, our understanding of how they give rise to the mechanics of larger-scale biological structures is still poor. Unlike the engineered macroscopic structures that we commonly build, biological structures are dynamic and self-organize: they sculpt themselves and change their own architecture, and they have structural building blocks that generate force and constantly come on and off. A description of such structures defies current traditional mechanical frameworks. It requires approaches that account for active force-generating parts and for the formation of spatial and temporal patterns utilizing a diverse array of building blocks. In this Perspective, we term this framework “emergent mechanics.” Through examples at molecular, cellular, and tissue scales, we highlight challenges and opportunities in quantitatively understanding the emergent mechanics of biological structures and the need for new conceptual frameworks and experimental tools on the way ahead. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4230603 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | The American Society for Cell Biology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42306032015-01-20 Emergent mechanics of biological structures Dumont, Sophie Prakash, Manu Mol Biol Cell Perspectives Mechanical force organizes life at all scales, from molecules to cells and tissues. Although we have made remarkable progress unraveling the mechanics of life's individual building blocks, our understanding of how they give rise to the mechanics of larger-scale biological structures is still poor. Unlike the engineered macroscopic structures that we commonly build, biological structures are dynamic and self-organize: they sculpt themselves and change their own architecture, and they have structural building blocks that generate force and constantly come on and off. A description of such structures defies current traditional mechanical frameworks. It requires approaches that account for active force-generating parts and for the formation of spatial and temporal patterns utilizing a diverse array of building blocks. In this Perspective, we term this framework “emergent mechanics.” Through examples at molecular, cellular, and tissue scales, we highlight challenges and opportunities in quantitatively understanding the emergent mechanics of biological structures and the need for new conceptual frameworks and experimental tools on the way ahead. The American Society for Cell Biology 2014-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4230603/ /pubmed/25368421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E14-03-0784 Text en © 2014 Dumont and Prakash. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0). “ASCB®,” “The American Society for Cell Biology®,” and “Molecular Biology of the Cell®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. |
spellingShingle | Perspectives Dumont, Sophie Prakash, Manu Emergent mechanics of biological structures |
title | Emergent mechanics of biological structures |
title_full | Emergent mechanics of biological structures |
title_fullStr | Emergent mechanics of biological structures |
title_full_unstemmed | Emergent mechanics of biological structures |
title_short | Emergent mechanics of biological structures |
title_sort | emergent mechanics of biological structures |
topic | Perspectives |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230603/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25368421 http://dx.doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E14-03-0784 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT dumontsophie emergentmechanicsofbiologicalstructures AT prakashmanu emergentmechanicsofbiologicalstructures |