Dresden 2009 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 13: Cell Migration
BP 13.5: Talk
Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 12:00–12:15, ZEU 260
Single cell motility in tunable environments — •Sravanti Uppaluri1, Jan Nagler1, Markus Engstler2, and Thomas Pfohl1 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization — 2Darmstadt University of Technology
African trypanosomes are parasites that infect a variety of hosts and cause fatal diseases including sleeping sickness in humans. Recent work has shown that trypanosome motility is essential in their evasion of the host immune response [Engstler M et al., Cell 2007]. We investigate the motility of trypanosomes in tunable environments in which we control viscosity (similar to that of blood), physical barriers (ECM-like collagen networks), and nutrient concentration. Despite comparable traveling velocities in all environments, the spread of the parasite, measured by its radius of gyration, is remarkably different among the various environments. In culture medium the trypanosomes move by one of three distinct motility classes: diffusion, directional persistence, and an intermediate class in which they exhibit a combination of both. The distribution of trypanosomes within these classes depends on environmental conditions. We show that the parasites are predominantly directionally persistent in higher viscosities. Analysis of scaling behaviour, corresponding to different motility classes will be presented.