Microtubule sortiing within a given electric field by designing flexural rigidity

We propose a method to control gliding directions of kinesin-propelled microtubules (MTs) corresponding to their flexural rigidity (EI). We prepared two kinds of MTs having different EI and their trajectories within an electric field were clearly separated. Therefore, this study demonstrated the EI-altered MTs can be workhorses to sort/concentrate various combinations of target molecules loaded on MTs.