Instability of wall-bound filaments induced by molecular motors

Microtubule filaments found in biological cells may be anchored to the cell membrane at one end. Motor-driven transport along these filaments creates flows of the cytoplasmic fluid inside the cell, which in turn produces motion and deformations of the filaments. By investigating the behaviour of the resulting fluid-structure problem, we reveal a novel instability of the filaments resulting in their alignment with the cell walls. This instability mechanism may play a role in the generation of cell-spanning rotational fluid flows observed in Drosophila ooctyes.