Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 22: Molecular Machines
BP 22.6: Talk
Thursday, March 29, 2007, 11:00–11:15, H43
Spontaneous wave propagation in muscle fibres. — •Stefan Günther1,2 and Karsten Kruse1,2 — 1Universität des Saarlandes, Theoretische Physik, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany — 2Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, 01187 Dresden, Germany
Coupled to an elastic element, molecular motors can spontaneously oscillate. In cilia and flagella an ensemble of such oscillatory elements leads to regular wave patterns. In order to gain insight into the mechanism generating these waves, we study chains of sarcomeres. A sarcomere is the elementary force generating unit of a muscle and contains motors as well as elastic elements. Single sarcomeres have been found to oscillate spontaneously [1] and waves of contraction are generated in sarcomere chains [2]. We analyse the dynamics of such chains by using a microscopic sarcomere model. Using parameter values obtained from single molecule experiments, we find quantitative agreement between our calculations and the experiments. By coarse-graining our description we can relate the parameters of a phenomenological description to the microscopic parameters.
[1] Yasuda, Shindo, and Ishiwata, Biophys. J. 70 (1996)
[2] Sasaki et al, J. Muscle Res. Cell Motil. 26 (2005)