Dresden 2006 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 15: Biopolymers II

AKB 15.8: Vortrag

Dienstag, 28. März 2006, 18:15–18:30, ZEU 260

Microtubule Dynamic Instability analyzed in 3D over time with Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy — •Philipp Keller, Francesco Pampaloni, Klaus Greger, and Ernst Stelzer — EMBL Heidelberg, Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69117 Heidelberg

Microtubules (MTs) are highly dynamic cytoskeletal filaments that continuously undergo stages of growth and shrinkage (dynamic instability). MTs radiate from a MT organizing center, forming starshaped MTs asters. In our studies of MT asters, we transfer the two-dimensional experiments of MT dynamic instability performed between two closely-spaced glass flats, to a three-dimensional environment and use the SPIM for imaging. Experiments are performed in vitro using Xenopus laevis egg extracts, providing us with a physiological yet biochemically easily modifiable system. Three-dimensional sample preparation ensures a minimal area of artificial surfaces and an unconstrained development of the asters in three dimensions. Apart from addressing the fundamental questions of MT dynamics, this approach allows us to phrase questions that specifically focus on three-dimensional aspects of MT structural dynamics. In our SPIM data sets, the evaluation of three-dimensional MT length distributions over time takes basically all of the asters’ MTs into account. This provides us with a very good statistical basis to test and improve theoretical models of dynamic instability.