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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 25: Posters: Cytoskeleton

BP 25.4: Poster

Mittwoch, 13. März 2013, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Depolymerization of Microtubules by Diffusing Motor Proteins — •Emanuel Reithmann, Louis Reese, and Erwin Frey — Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Microtubules (MT) are dynamic protein filaments integral to a wide variety of cellular processes such as mitosis, meiosis and cellular transport. Molecular motors moving on the MT play a key role in the control of MT length as they can catalyze depolymerization and polymerization. There is a plethora of molecular motors with different properties such as biased or unbiased movement along the MT. As opposed to depolymerases with a directed motion, only a few theoretical results exist for diffusing motors such as MCAK. Here we investigate a stochastic model for the processive depolymerase activity induced by molecular motors diffusing on the MT. Employing Monte Carlo simulations and analytic mean-field approximation methods we study the depolymerization process. We determine the stationary density profiles of MCAK along microtubules, and show that the concentration of bound motor proteins at the microtubule tip is a critical determinant of the depolymerization rate. Our model agrees well with experimental results [1]. Further, based on this data, predictions of the MCAK off-rate at the MT tip can be made.
[1] J. Cooper, M. Wagenbach, C. Asbury, L. Wordeman, Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 17, 77-82 (2010).