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Abstract

Flows over remarkably long distances are crucial to the functioning of many organisms, across all kingdoms of life. Coordinated flows are fundamental to power deformations, required for migration or development, or to spread resources and signals. A ubiquitous mechanism to generate flows, particularly prominent in animals and amoebas, is actomyosin cortex-driven mechanical deformations that pump the fluid enclosed by the cortex. However, it is unclear how cortex dynamics can self-organize to give rise to coordinated flows across the largely varying scales of biological systems. Here, we develop a mechanochemical model of actomyosin cortex mechanics coupled to a contraction-triggering, soluble chemical. The chemical itself is advected with the flows generated by the cortex-driven deformations of the tubular-shaped cell. The theoretical model predicts a dynamic instability giving rise to stable patterns of cortex contraction waves and oscillatory flows. Surprisingly, simulated patterns extend beyond the intrinsic length scale of the dynamic instability-scaling with system size instead. Patterns appear randomly but can be robustly generated in a growing system or by flow-generating boundary conditions. We identify oscillatory flows as the key for the scaling of contraction waves with system size. Our work shows the importance of active flows in biophysical models of patterning, not only as a regulating input or an emergent output, but also as a full part of a self-organized machinery. Contractions and fluid flows are observed in all kinds of organisms, so this concept is likely to be relevant for a broad class of systems.