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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 14: Poster Session II

BP 14.62: Poster

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 18:00–21:00, P2

Self-assembly of sarcomeres by pairwise interactions in muscle fibers — •Amirali Zandieh, Abhinav Kumar, Francine Kolley-Köchel, and Benjamin M. Friedrich — Cluster of Excellence "Physics of Life", Dresden University of Technology

Walking, flying, and heartbeat are powered by the contraction of sarcomeres, the elementary contractile units of striated muscle, which are arranged in series into periodic myofibrils extending across the length of a muscle cell [1]. While the physical principles underlying sarcomere self-assembly remain unclear, recent work on Drosophila indirect flight muscle revealed that myosin motor filaments, Z-disk proteins, and titin/Sallimus form an initial periodic pattern, with actin filaments becoming polarity-sorted only later, motivating 1D minimal models [2].

To develop more realistic 3D descriptions of myofibrillogenesis and capture their cross-sectional organization, we employ ESPResSo [3] for agent-based simulations. With only pairwise interactions, sarcomere-like periodic patterns emerge and become registered in-phase along the transverse direction, as quantified by Kuramoto order parameters. Additionally, the catch-bond behavior of actin crosslinkers enhances and stabilizes this order. Together, these results show that pairwise interactions between sarcomeric components are sufficient to drive the emergence of order, marking a key step toward understanding the physical basis of sarcomere self-assembly.

[1] F. Kolley, et al. PRX Life (2024) [2] F. Kolley-Köchel, et al. Biophysical Reviews, in press [3] Weik, Florian, et al. The European Physical Journal (2019)

Keywords: pattern formation; myofibrillogenesis; self-assembly; agent-based simulation; sarcomere