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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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dumont, Sophie, Prakash, Manu
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
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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.
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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
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