Dresden 2014 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 11: Posters: Cytoskeleton
BP 11.3: Poster
Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 09:30–12:30, P1
Dynamics of active actin network contraction — •Dominic Jourdain1, Anne Bernheim2, and Karsten Kruse1 — 1Universität des Saarlandes, Germany — 2Ben Gurion University, Israel
Recent in vitro experiments on actin filaments together with myosin motors reveal characteristic contraction patterns. The contraction speed increases linearly at first, before it decays exponentially. For asymmetric initial x-y-aspect-ratios, the contraction seems to follow this asymmetry. Using a continuous nonlinear Neo-Hookian elastic model for the filaments with a density dependent extra term to take the motor activity into account, we are able to qualitatively reproduce the asymmetric contraction and the contraction speed curves. To this end, a triangular finite element simulation is used.