Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 25: Posters: Cytoskeleton

BP 25.5: Poster

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

Dynamics and length distribution of microtubules under force and confinement — Björn Zelinski, •Nina Müller, and Jan Kierfeld — Physics Department, TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

We investigate the microtubule polymerization dynamics with catastrophe and rescue events for three different confinement scenarios: (i) The microtubule is confined by rigid and fixed walls, (ii) it grows under constant force, and (iii) it grows against a linearly increasing force. (i) In confinement, we find exponentially decreasing or increasing stationary microtubule length distributions instead of bounded or unbounded phases and introduce a model for wall-induced catastrophes. (ii) Under a constant force the boundary between bounded and unbounded growth is shifted to higher tubulin concentrations and rescue rates. We determine the critical force f_c which provides the transition from unbounded to bounded growth. (iii) For growth against an elastic obstacle and a non-zero rescue rate, we find a sharply peaked steady state length distribution. The corresponding average length self-organizes such that the average polymerization force equals the critical force f_c for the transition from unbounded to bounded growth.