Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 48: Posters - Bioimaging and Spectroscopy

BP 48.17: Poster

Mittwoch, 9. März 2016, 17:00–19:00, Poster C

Acto-myosin in cardiac muscle cells by scanning x-ray nano-diffraction — •Jan-David Nicolas, Marten Bernhard, and Tim Salditt — Institut für Röntgenphysik, Göttingen, Deutschland

Owing to the highly oriented molecular structure of the actin-myosin cortex in muscle cells, diffraction techniques are well-suited to study the geometry of this filament assembly down to nanometer resolution. In particular, classical x-ray diffraction studies on muscular tissue were the first to unravel the detailled structure of the sarcomere. In these experiments, however, structural information is averaged over macroscopically large volumes of the tissue, with diffraction volumes containing a vast ensemble of muscle cells. Contrarily, recent progress in x-ray optics has enabled diffraction experiments with spot sizes in the sub-micron range, well-suited to illuminate only selected organelles of a single cell.

We report on recent experiments analyzing the micro-structure of acto-myosin complexes in individual cardiomyocytes which make up the striated muscular tissue of the heart. We performed experiments on (initially) alive, chemically fixed as well as freeze-dried cell preparations. Scanning the sample through the nano-focused beam, SAXS data were recorded and analysed to generate mappings of different structural parameters. Scanning SAXS mappings are complemented by holographic reconstructions, extending the covered frequency range by two orders of magnitude. By means of x-ray holography, samples could also be immediately checked for radiation damage.