Emergence of flagella-like oscillations in single microtubules driven by collective dynein transport

Flagellar and ciliary oscillations result from a combination of stereotypical axonemal geometry, collective mechanics of motors, microtubules (MTs), elastic linkers and biochemical regulation. However, the minimal essential components and constraints resulting in flagellar oscillations remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that periodic, low-frequency waves of flagella-like oscillations in vitro emerge from a ATP-driven collective molecular motor transport of MTs clamped at one end. The spontaneous oscillations arise without any external forcing and can be explained by an in silico model of molecular motor binding driven MT bending and buckling followed by motor detachment driven ‘recovery’ stroke. We demonstrate that transitions in single MT patterns between flapping, flagellar-beating and looping are determined solely by the self-organization of collective motor transport and filament elasticity.