Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 30: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 30.27: Poster
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3
Flow-Alignment Coupling in the Cortex of C. Elegans Embryo — •Guillaume Salbreux1,2, Sundar Naganathan2, Jean-Francois Joanny3, Frank Julicher1, and Stephan W. grill1,2 — 1Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany — 3Institut Curie, Paris, France
In the nematode C.Elegans embryo, anteroposterior polarization is ensured by a cortical flow powered by myosin activity (Mayer&Al, Nature, 2010). Here we investigate the consequence of this flow on the alignment of actin filaments in the cortex. A generic hydrodynamic theory of the actin cortex predicts the formation of an actin ring at the boundary between the anterior and posterior region and the formation of an ingression which may explain the apparition of a pseudocleavage furrow. The alignement can be characterized with a nematic order that we measure on embryos carrying a Lifeact probe allowing to visualize the actin cortex. Strikingly, we have been able to observe this ring and a coupling between flow and order parameter at different stages of the polarization flow. Such coupling may be a generic feature in biological systems involving actin networks.