Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 2: Colloids and Complex Fluids I (joint Session BP/CPP/DY, organized by BP)
DY 2.1: Talk
Monday, March 7, 2016, 09:30–09:45, H45
Intracellular microfluidics to probe the role of hydrodynamic flows in embryonic cell polarization — •Matthäus Mittasch1, Peter Groß2, Stephan Grill2, and Moritz Kreysing1 — 1MPI-CBG, Dresden, Germany — 2Biotechnolgy Center, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
A hallmark of embryogenesis is the development of spatial structure. This process is orchestrated by gene regulatory networks coupled to physical transport mechanisms. Particularly, it was suggested that the polarization of the egg cell of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, prior to asymmetric cell division, relies on interaction of two protein networks (PAR proteins) coupled to active cortical flows. However, it remains a challenge to perturb intracellular fluid mechanics to demonstrate the causal role of hydrodynamic flows in embryogenesis. Towards this end, we exploited thermo-viscous pumping (Weinert & Braun, J. appl. Phys. 2008) in order to dynamically control hydrodynamic flows inside of living embryos. Specifically, well-defined flow patterns were generated on sub- and cellular length-scales with velocities exceeding wild-type flows significantly, without affecting the biological integrity of the embryo. By application of externally-induced flows we depleted membrane-bound PAR proteins locally, suggesting that hydrodynamic flows are essential to load PAR proteins at the posterior pole. Furthermore, we perform rescue experiments in a non-polarizing embryo, by which the omitted wild-type flow will be applied externally to test if the PAR polarity can be restored artificially.