Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 32: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 32.40: Poster
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1
A dynamic model for the morphogenesis of the Golgi apparatus — •Jens Kühnle1,2, Julian C. Shillcock2, Ole G. Mouritsen2, and Matthias Weiss1 — 1German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg — 2Center of Membrane Physics, University of Southern Denmark
The dynamic compartmentalization of eukaryotic cells is a fascinating phenomenon that is far from being understood. A prominent example for this challenge is the Golgi pparatus, the central hub for protein sorting and lipid metabolism in the secretory pathway. Despite major advances in elucidating its molecular biology, the fundamental question of how the morphogenesis of this organelle is organized on a system's level has remained elusive. Here, we have formulated a coarse-grained computational model that captures key features of the dynamic morphogenesis of a Golgi apparatus. In particular, our model relates the experimentally observed Golgi phenotypes, the typical turnover times, as well as the size and number of cisternae to three basic, experimentally accessible quantities: the rates for material influx from the endoplasmic reticulum, the anterograde and the retrograde transport rates. Based on these results, we elucidate which factors are crucial for the structure formation of the Golgi apparatus. Moreover, we propose which molecular factors should be mutated to alter the organelle's phenotype and dynamics.