Relating energy dissipation to effective interactions and structure formation in the cytoskeleton

Active biological systems such as the cytoskeleton are known to exhibit a wide range of interaction types and are subject to a variety of external stimuli. Here we aim to find the metrics that govern the formation and stability of structures in the cytoskeleton. Previous work on non-equilibrium liquids [Tociu et al. PRX 2018] demonstrated that structure and dynamics can be altered by changing the rate at which the system dissipates energy. Biasing trajectory probabilities with a function related to energy dissipation had the same effect as increasing the interaction strength between individual particles or introducing an external driving force. We extrapolate this concept to systems of cross-linked filaments by considering a similar connection between structure and thermodynamic quantities such as energy dissipation. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we compare the effects of independently tuning component properties and thermodynamic quantities on system phase behavior. Quantifying the relationship between system-wide properties and those of individual components may lead to improved understanding of underlying principles of cytoskeletal structure and dynamics.