Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Physics of Cells III

BP 27.9: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 16:30–16:45, ZEU 250

Responses of cytoskeletal waves to stimuli and possible implications for cell behaviour — •Alexander Dreher¹, Konstantin Doubrovinski², and Karsten Kruse¹ — ¹Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 151150, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany — ²Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

The crawling of eukaryotic cells on substrates is driven by the cytoskeleton. How the cytoskeleton is organized and how it responds to external stimuli during this process is still poorly understood. Spontaneous polymerization waves have been suggested to provide a means for cytokeletal organization. We theoretically investigate the response of such waves to applied forces and to local modifications of the polymerization activity. We identify conditions under which a wave is reflected and when it is captured by an obstacle. Our results suggest a possible mechanism for responses of cells encountering another cell. It might be relevant for T cells that need to decide quickly whether to kill a cell they encountered or to crawl away and search other cells.