A Typical Workflow to Simulate Cytoskeletal Systems

Many cytoskeletal systems are now sufficiently well known to permit their precise quantitative modeling. Microtubule and actin filaments are well characterized, and the associated proteins are often known, as well as their abundance and the interactions between these elements. Thus, computer simulations can be used to investigate the collective behavior of the system precisely, in a way that is complementary to experiments. Cytosim is an Open Source cytoskeleton simulation suite designed to handle large systems of flexible filaments with associated proteins such as molecular motors. It also offers the possibility to simulate passive crosslinkers, diffusible crosslinkers, nucleators, cutters, and discrete versions of the motors that only step on unoccupied lattice sites on a filament. Other objects complement the filaments by offering spherical or more complicated geometry that can be used to represent chromosomes, the nucleus, or vesicles in the cell.

Cytosim offers simple command-line tools for running a simulation and displaying its results, which are versatile and do not require programming skills. In this workflow, step-by-step instructions are given to i) install the necessary environment on a new computer, ii) configure Cytosim to simulate the contraction of a 2D actomyosin network, and iii) produce a visual representation of the system. Next, the system is probed by systematically varying a key parameter: the number of crosslinkers. Finally, the visual representation of the system is complemented by the numerical quantification of contractility to view, in a graph, how contractility depends on the composition of the system. Overall, these different steps constitute a typical workflow that can be applied with few modifications to tackle many other problems in the cytoskeletal field.