Myosin motor proteins drive vigorous steady-state fluctuations in the actin cytoskeleton of
cells. Endogenous embedded semiflexible filaments such as microtubules, or added
filaments such as single-walled carbon nanotubes are used as novel tools to noninvasively
track equilibrium and nonequilibrium fluctuations in such biopolymer networks. Here, we
analytically calculate shape fluctuations of semiflexible probe filaments in a viscoelastic
environment, driven out of equilibrium by motor activity. Transverse bending fluctuations of …

Endogenous embedded semiflexible filaments such as microtubules, or added filaments
such as single-walled carbon nanotubes can be used as novel tools to noninvasively track
equilibrium and nonequilibrium fluctuations in biopolymer networks. We analytically
calculated shape fluctuations of semi-flexible probe filaments in a viscoelastic environment,
driven out of equilibrium by motor activity. Transverse bending fluctuations of the probe
filaments can be decomposed into dynamic normal modes. We find that these modes no …