Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 30: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 30.22: Poster

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

The Role of Microtubules in Cell Motility — •Matthias Rakowski, Börn Meier, and Doris Heinrich — Faculty of Physics and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 München, Germany

The ability of cells for self-determined motility plays a crucial role in many biological processes, like food gathering of single amoeba or tissue invasion of whole cell ensembles during angiogenesis. In order to migrate, cells require advanced control over their cytoskeleton, in principle consisting of the actin cortex and microtubules. While many studies examine the influence of perturbations of the actin cortex in Dictyostelium discoideum cells, few address migration with depleted microtubules. We implemented an analysis method based on examination of increasing (gain) and decreasing (loss) cell areas between distinct time steps. This analysis is combined with skeletonisation, a morphological operation on binary images to transform a shape to a line as shown in Yuan Xiong et al [1]. This operation emphasizes geometrical and topological properties. Our statistical analysis of pseudopod dynamics, in terms of angle distributions, pseudopod lifetime, and the distinction between directed and random phases of migration obtained by our Transport-algorithm [2], permits an accurate description and quantification of cell migration and therefore will help to elucidate the role of microtubules in cell motility.

[1] Xiong et al., BMC Sys. Biol. 4, 33

[2] Arcizet et al., PRL 101, 248103