Berlin 2008 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 24: Actin Dynamics
BP 24.6: Talk
Thursday, February 28, 2008, 15:45–16:00, C 243
A microscopic description of actin-based propulsion of beads — •azam gholami1, martin falcke1, and erwin frey2 — 1Hahn-Meitner-Institute, Dept. Theoretical Physics, GlienickerStr. 100, 14109 Berlin, Germany — 2Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics and Center of NanoScience, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Theresienstr. 37, 80333 München, Germany
Beads propelled by actin polymerization have been widely used as a model system for Arp2/3 dependent actin-based movement. VCA-grafted beads were shown to exhibit the same characteristic motion as the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. All existing microscopic models, such as the elastic Brownian ratchet model do not explicitly consider geometry, such as the size of object or the curvature. Here, we generalize our simple model of actin-based motility to include the curvature of the obstacle. We find that small and large beads move approximately at the same speed which is different from the tethered ratchet model which predicts faster movement with larger beads.