Active chemomechanical solitons.

Abstract

In many biological systems, localized mechanical information is transmitted by mechanically neutral chemical signals. Typical examples include contraction waves in the actomyosin cortex at the cellular scale, and peristaltic waves at tissue level. In such systems, chemical activity is transformed into mechanical deformation by distributed motor-type mechanisms. To elucidate the underlying principles of chemomechanical coupling, we present the simplest example of a directional motion in a distributed mechanical system, guided by a purely chemical cue. It shows that localized mechanical signals can be driven by chemical activity in a highly efficient manner.