The cytoskeleton is an active network of polar filaments. The activity can lead to the polymerization of filaments at one end and depolymerization at the other. This phenomenon is called treadmilling and is essential for many cellular processes, in particular, the crawling of cells on a substrate. We develop a microscopic theoretical framework for describing systems of treadmilling filaments. We show that such systems can self-organize into structures observed in cell fragments, in particular, asters and moving spots.

• Received 4 May 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.228104