Developmentally-driven self-assembly and dynamics of living chiral crystals

ORAL

Abstract

Active crystals are highly symmetric ordered structures that emerge from the nonequilibrium self-organization of motile objects. Here, we show that swimming starfish embryos spontaneously assemble into highly ordered rotating active crystals that span thousands of spinning organisms and persist for tens of hours. Our experiments show that the formation, dynamics, and dissolution of these living chiral crystals are controlled by the natural development of the embryos. As a function of developmental time, these crystals undergo an order-disorder transition characterized by progressive loss of translational and orientational order. Remarkably, non-reciprocal force and torque exchanges between the embryos lead to emergence of chiral waves and signatures of odd elasticity. Our work shows how autonomous morphological development at the single-embryo level can control emergent collective nonequilibrium dynamics and symmetry breaking at the macroscale.

*T.H.T. acknowledges support from the NSF-Simons Center for Mathematical and Statistical Analysis of Biology at Harvard (award number 1764269) and Harvard Quantitative Biology Initiative as NSF-Simons Postdoctoral Fellow. T.H.T. acknowledges support from the Center for Systems Biology Dresden as ELBE Postdoctoral Fellow. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (to N.F.). This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant no. NSF PHY-1748958. N.F., J.D. and S.G. are grateful to KITP program 'ACTIVE20: Symmetry, Thermodynamics and Topology in Active Matter'.

–

Publication: Tzer Han Tan, Alexander Mietke, Hugh Higinbotham, Junang Li, Yuchao Chen, Peter J. Foster, Shreyas Gokhale, Jörn Dunkel, and Nikta Fakhri. "Development drives dynamics of living chiral crystals." arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.07507 (2021).

Presenters

  • Tzer Han Tan

    • Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
    • Quantitative Biology Initiative, Harvard University; Center for Systems Biology Dresden
    • Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)

Authors

  • Tzer Han Tan

    • Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
    • Quantitative Biology Initiative, Harvard University; Center for Systems Biology Dresden
    • Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)

  • Alexander Mietke

    • Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Junang Li

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI

  • Yuchao Chen

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Hugh Higinbotham

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Peter J Foster

    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Shreyas Gokhale

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Jorn Dunkel

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT
    • Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Nikta Fakhri

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology MI