Dresden 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 23: Physics of Bacteria and Viruses
BP 23.2: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 26. März 2009, 17:30–17:45, ZEU 260
Min proteins in growing Escherichia coli: from stochastic switching to oscillations — •Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich1, Giovanni Meacci2, Hugues Chate3, and Karsten Kruse4 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Straße 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany — 2IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, P.O. Box 218, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 — 3CEA Service de Physique de l’Etat Condensé, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France — 4Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 151150, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany
Self-organization of proteins in space and time is of crucial importance for the functioning of cellular processes. Often, this organization takes place in the presence of strong fluctuations due to the small numbers of proteins involved. We report on stochastic switching of the localization of Min proteins in short E. coli cells. In longer bacteria, the switching turns into regular oscillations that are required for positioning of the division plane. Considering the intrinsic fluctuations in a simple model reproduces stochastic switching as well as oscillatory behavior. This provides strong evidence for the fact that the macroscopic switching is rooted in the microscopic fluctuations of the molecular processes involved.