Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 25: Posters: Cytoskeleton

BP 25.18: Poster

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Biopolymer Networks: Simulations of Rigid Rods Connected by Wormlike Chains — •Knut M Heidemann¹, Meenakshi M Prabhune², Florian Rehfeldt², Christoph F Schmidt², and Max Wardetzky¹ — ¹Institut für Numerische und Angewandte Mathematik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen — ²Drittes Physikalisches Institut - Biophysik, Georg-August-Universität-Göttingen

The cytoskeleton of cells is a composite network of filaments ranging from stiff rod-like microtubules to semiflexible actin filaments that together play a crucial role in cell structure and mechanics. The collective dynamics of these cytoskeletal filaments with different mechanical properties are yet to be understood completely. To model such a strongly heterogeneous composite, we simulate networks of rigid rods connected by flexible linkers (wormlike chains). We extract elastic moduli by quasistatic deformations at varying filament densities and analyze the crossover between cross-link dominated and rod dominated regimes. In particular, we are interested in the asymptotic stress dependence of the differential modulus.

The simulations are accompanied by rheological experiments on networks of microtubules (MTs) cross-linked by double-stranded DNA of variable length (cf. poster Meenakshi Prabhune).