Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 17: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 17.35: Poster

Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Random and directed modes of one-dimensional ameboid motion — •Oliver Nagel, Matthias Theves, and Carsten Beta — Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam, Germany

We use narrow microfluidic channels to study the quasi one-dimensional motion of starvation developed Dictyostelium discoideum cells, a model organism for amoeboid movement. Confined in channels with a crosssection on the order of an average cell diameter (10 x 20 microns), two modes of movement were observed. On the one hand, cells may perform a one-dimensional random walk, frequently switching the direction of motion in the channel. On the other hand, we observed cells that moved persistently in one direction along the channel for more than half an hour without reversing their direction of motion. Surprisingly, these cells even continued their persistent movement in an unbounded area for several minutes after leaving the narrow confinement of the channel. Furthermore, we have performed fluorescence microscopy experiments that provide insight into the degree of cytoskeletal polarization of these persistently moving cells by imaging the intracellular distribution of actin and myosin II in the cell cortex.