Dresden 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Posters: Cell adhesion, mechanics and migration

BP 7.32: Poster

Montag, 31. März 2014, 17:30–19:30, P3

Stochastic Resonance as underlying mechanism of growth cone chemotaxis — •Wolfram Pönisch, Melanie Knorr, and Josef Käs — Universität Leipzig, Fakultät für Physik und Geowissenschaften, Institut für Experimentelle Physik I, Physik der weichen Materie, Leipzig, Deutschland

Axon guidance is the manipulation of the growth direction of a protruding growth cone, the fan-like shaped tip of a neurons axon. Previous research postulated an important role of stochastic resonance, the amplification of a signal by noise, during axon turning.

In order to get reliable data from experiments it is necessary to create stable and reproducible chemical gradients. In this project two different setups were examined critically: the Ibidi μ-Slide Chemotaxis chip and the classical micropipette assays. None of them were able to create gradients with the required quality for the examination of stochastic resonance.

Additionally an earlier developed numerical model was applied to simulate the edge fluctuations of the growth cone considering different concentration gradients. This model predicts the existence of an optimal noise level for the membrane fluctuations in order to induce turning of the in silico growth cone in a chemoattractant gradient.