Fig. 4: Rupture behavior and lifetimes of adhesion clusters.
From: Generic self-stabilization mechanism for biomolecular adhesions under load
a The reservoir-exchange rates γ± control the association and dissociation of molecules with the adhesion. b Exemplary force response of adhesion clusters without reservoir connection and with strong reservoir connection. A force jump amplifies molecule unfolding. Without self-stabilization, the cluster does not reach a non-equilibrium steady state but dissociates shortly after force application. c Average lifetimes of the adhesion clusters with N* ≈ 10 for different values of γ± with γ = γ+/γ− held constant. A strong reservoir connection results in an adhesion lifetime maximum at finite, non-vanishing external forces. Average cluster lifetimes as a function of force and the unfolding length Δ for kδ = 0.1kβ = 1/t0 and γ± = 0 (d) and γ± = 100/t0 (e). See Supplementary Notes I for other parameter values.
