English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

We systematically explore the self-assembly of semi-flexible polymers indeformable spherical confinement across a wide regime of chain stiffness,contour lengths and packing fractions by means of coarse-grained moleculardynamics simulations. Compliant, DNA-like filaments are found to undergo acontinuous crossover from two distinct surface-ordered quadrupolar states, bothcharacterized by tetrahedral patterns of topological defects, to eitherlongitudinal or latitudinal bipolar structures with increasing polymerconcentrations. These transitions, along with the intermediary arrangementsthat they involve, may be attributed to the combination of an orientationalwetting phenomenon with subtle density- and contour-length-dependent variationsin the elastic anisotropies of the corresponding liquid crystal phases.Conversely, the organization of rigid, microtubule-like polymers evidences aprogressive breakdown of continuum elasticity theory as chain dimensions becomecomparable to the equilibrium radius of the encapsulating membrane. In thiscase, we observe a gradual shift from prolate, tactoid-like morphologies tooblate, erythrocyte-like structures with increasing contour lengths, which isshown to arise from the interplay between nematic ordering, polymer andmembrane buckling. We further provide numerical evidence of a number ofyet-unidentified, self-organized states in such confined systems of stiffachiral filaments, including spontaneous spiral smectic assemblies, facetedpolyhedral and twisted bundle-like arrangements. Our results are quantifiedthrough the introduction of several order parameters and an unsupervisedlearning scheme for the localization of surface topological defects, and are inexcellent agreement with field-theoretical predictions as well as classicalelastic theories of thin rods and spherical shells.

Morphogenesis and self-organization of persistent filaments confined within flexible biopolymeric shells