Regensburg 2004 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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AKB: Biologische Physik
AKB 50: Poster Session "Biological Physics"
AKB 50.49: Poster
Freitag, 12. März 2004, 10:30–13:00, B
Morphogen transport by planar transcytosis — •Tobias Bollenbach1, Karsten Kruse1, Periklis Pantazis2, Marcos González-Gaitán2, and Frank Jülicher1 — 1MPI for Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzerstr. 38, 01187 Dresden — 2MPI for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden
Morphogens are signaling molecules that play a key role in development. They spread from a restricted source into an adjacent target tissue forming a concentration gradient therein. The fate of cells in the target tissue is determined by the local concentration of such morphogens. So far, the dominant mechanism by which morphogens are transported through the tissue has not been clearly identifed. While diffusion through the extracellular space is a possibility, recent in vivo experiments on the morphogen Dpp in the fruit fly Drosophila provide evidence for an active transport mechanism that was termed “planar transcytosis”. Here, a theoretical description of this transport mechanism is presented. As a consequence of nonlinearities in the current, this transport phenomenon exhibits rich behavior. We compare our description to experimental observations and aim at a quantitative description of morphogen transport.