Active-flow-driven DNA remodelling generates millimetre-scale mechanical oscillations

DNA undergoes continuous and rhythmic mechanical remodelling through condensation, looping and disentangling to regulate gene expression, segregate chromosomes and guide morphogenesis. Here we demonstrate a purely mechanical route to rhythmic DNA reorganization in a minimal active composite of microtubules, kinesin motors and DNA. We embed DNA polymers in an active-turbulent microtubule–kinesin fluid, creating a self-morphing material. The active flows stretch and entangle the DNA, forming a self-organized viscoelastic network that resists active stresses and affects flow over large length scales. This mechanical feedback loop progressively amplifies velocity correlations and drives a sharp non-equilibrium transition tuned by DNA contour length: from disordered flow to synchronized, millimetre-scale oscillatory flow. We rationalize the sharp transition with an active-gel model that predicts a growing length scale and an oscillatory instability emerging from the interplay between activity, orientational order and self-generated viscoelasticity, rather than chemical signalling. The theoretical dependence of the oscillation frequency on system size and activity is in agreement with observations. Thus, flow-driven DNA remodelling provides a minimal physical route to autonomous, system-spanning oscillations in three dimensions and suggests design principles for programmable soft matter that coordinates, actuates and reshapes itself. Active matter can exhibit turbulent or coherent flows. Now it is shown that active flows can entangle DNA polymers, leading to a non-equilibrium transition from disordered turbulence to periodic motion.