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During the early developmental process of organisms, the formation of theleft-right laterality requires a subtle mechanism, as it is associated withother principal body axes. Any inherent chiral feature in an egg cell can inprincipal trigger this spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. Individualmicrotubules, major cytoskeletal filaments, are known as chiral objects.However, to date there lacks convincing evidence of a hierarchical connectionof the molecular nature of microtubules to large-scale chirality, particularlyat the length scale of an entire cell. Here we assemble an in-vitro activelayer, consisting of microtubules and kinesin motor proteins, on a glasssurface. Upon inclusion of methyl cellulose, the layered system exhibits along-range active nematic phase, characterized by the global alignment ofgliding MTs. This nematic order spans over the entire system size in themillimeter range and, remarkably, allows hidden collective chirality to emergeas counterclockwise global rotation of the active MT layer. The analysis basedon our theoretical model suggests that the emerging global nematic orderresults from the local alignment of MTs, stabilized by methyl cellulose. Italso suggests that the global rotation arises from the MTs' intrinsiccurvature, leading to preferential handedness. Given its flexibility, thislayered in-vitro cytoskeletal system enables the study of membranous proteinbehavior responsible for important cellular developmental processes.

Large-scale chirality in an active layer of microtubules and kinesin motor proteins