Tabony and co-workers [C. Papaseit, N. Pochon, and J. Tabony, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97, 8364 (2000)] showed that the self-organization of microtubules from purified tubulin solutions is sensitive to gravitational conditions. In this paper, we propose two models of spatial and orientational self-organization of microtubules in a gravitational field. First, the spatial model is based on the dominant chemical kinetics. The pattern formation of microtubule concentration is obtained (1) in terms of a moving kink in the limit when the disassembly rate is negligible, and (2) for the case of no free tubulin and only assembled microtubules present. Second, the orientational pattern of striped microtubule domains is consistent with predictions from a phenomenological Landau-Ginzburg free energy expansion in terms of an orientational order parameter.

• Received 15 January 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.68.021903