Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 32: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 32.1: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1

Intra- and intercellular fluctuations in Min protein dynamics decrease with cell age — •Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich¹, Giovanni Meacci², Joe Lutkenhaus³, Hugues Chate⁴, and Karsten Kruse⁵ — 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 — ³Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, and Immunology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas 66160 — ⁴CEA-Saclay, Service de Physique de l’Etat Condensé, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France — ⁵Theoretische 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 random fluctuations due to the small number of molecules involved. We report on stochastic switching of the Min-protein distributions between the two cell-halves in short Escherichia coli cells. A computational model provides strong evidence that the macroscopic switching is rooted in microscopic noise on the molecular scale. In longer bacteria, the switching turns into regular oscillations that are required for positioning of the division plane. As the pattern becomes more regular, cell-to-cell variability also lessens, indicating cell age-dependent regulation of Min-protein activity.