Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 30: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 30.20: Poster

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

Changes of Min-protein patterns in growing Escherichia coli — •Mike Bonny¹, Elisabeth Fischer-Friedrich², and Karsten Kruse¹ — ¹Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, 66041 Saarbrücken — ²Department of Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100 Israel

The position of the division site in the rod-like bacterium E. coli is determined by the Min proteins. In a wild-type bacterium, prior to division, the Min proteins organize into a standing wave with a single node in the cell center, thereby selecting the cell center as division site. If the bacterium is prevented from dividing and grows longer, we see that in a considerable fraction of bacteria, the pattern changes first into a travelling wave that starts at one cell pole and disappears at the opposite pole before re-emerging at the original pole. After a further increase in cell size, the pattern changes again into a standing wave, now with two nodes. In our work, we present an experimental and a theoretical investigation of these transitions.