Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 1: Molecular Motors

BP 1.5: Talk

Monday, March 31, 2014, 10:45–11:00, HÜL 386

Length regulation of microtubules: the effect of limited resources — •Matthias Rank, Louis Reese, and Erwin Frey — Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC) and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Length regulation of microtubules is strongly associated with the motion and action of molecular motors as kinesin-8 Kip3p. This processive motor has been shown to depolymerise microtubules; its activity thus competes with spontaneous tubulin polymerisation. We describe the kinesin motion in terms of the totally asymetric simple exclusion process (TASEP) with modified dynamic rules at the terminal site. In particular---mimicking situations in real cells---we investigate the effect of limited resources on the dynamics. We find rich phase behaviour which differs fundamentally from the case of an infinite reservoir. We supplement our mean-field theory with Monte Carlo simulations to obtain a complete theoretical picture of the process.