Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 29: Posters: Biopolymers \& Biomaterials

BP 29.16: Poster

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3

Instabilities of active gels confined by a fluid membrane — •Dominic Jourdain and Karsten Kruse — Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 151150, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany

From a physical point of view, the cytoskeleton can be viewed as an active gel. Various theoretical analysis have shown that such a material can display instabilities, provided that the activity exceeds a critical threshold. Cellular systems are usually confined by lipid membranes. We are interested in the influence of such membranes on the dynamics of the cytoskeleton. As a simple example, we analyse the stability of an active gel inside a membrane tube. To this end, we use a multi-component hydrodynamic description that captures the behaviour of active gels on macroscopic length and time scales. We find that the active stresses in the gel can induce a pearling-like instability of the tube and determine the dependence of the activity threshold on parameters characterising the membrane.