Interacting filaments drive vesicle morphogenesis

The interplay between vesicles and their enclosed filaments is fundamental to the morphogenesis, motility, and mechanical response of biological cells, artificial cells, and biomimetic robotic systems. By engineering responsiveness or interaction capabilities-such as long-range filament interactions-these filaments can function as active elements that regulate system behavior. Here, we combine theoretical modeling and molecular dynamics simulations to demonstrate how interacting filament loops within vesicles induce diverse, system-wide morphological transformations. These transformations are driven by inter- and intrafilament interactions, as well as the competing deformations of both the vesicle and its encapsulated filaments, with interfilament interactions playing a dominant role. We observe phenomena including filament buckling and reorientation, vesicle stretching, and convex-to-concave shape transitions. Morphological phase diagrams are constructed for both vesicles under zero osmotic pressure and those with a fixed relative volume, and we further explore the packing of inhomogeneous filament loops. These results offer quantitative design principles for artificial cellular systems in which filament interactions act as levers to control and stabilize emergent morphologies, laying the groundwork for the development of adaptive soft robotics.