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We study a reconstituted composite system consisting of an active microtubulenetwork interdigitated with a passive network of entangled F-actin filaments.Increasing viscoelasticity of the F-actin network controls the emergentdynamics, inducing a transition from turbulent-like flows to bulk contractions.At intermediate F-actin concentrations, where the active stresses change theirsymmetry from anisotropic extensile to isotropic contracting, the compositeseparates into layered asters that coexist with the background turbulent fluid.Contracted onion-like asters have a radially extending microtubule-rich cortexthat envelops alternating layers of microtubules and F-actin. Theself-regulating layered organization survives aster merging events, which arereminiscent of droplet coalescence, and suggest the presence of effectivesurface tension. Finally, the layered asters are metastable structures. Theirlifetime, which ranges from minutes to hours, is encoded in the materialproperties of the composite. Taken together, these results challenge thecurrent models of active matter. They demonstrate that the self-organizeddynamical states and patterns, which are evocative of those observed in thecytoskeleton, do not require precise biochemical regulation but can arise dueto purely mechanical interactions of actively driven filamentous materials.

Extensile to contractile transition in active microtubule-actin composites generates layered asters with programmable lifetimes