Dresden 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Posters - Cell Mechanics

BP 9.5: Poster

Montag, 20. März 2017, 17:30–19:30, P3

Functional analysis of chordotonal organ mechanics in vivo — •Chonglin Guan¹, Martin Göpfert², and Christoph Schmidt¹ — ¹Faculty für Physics, Third Institute of Physics - Biophysics, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany — ²Department of Cellular Neurobiology, Schwann-Schleiden-Centre for Molecular Cell Biology, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany

Most if not all higher organisms require reliable mechanosensation for various biological processes including hearing, balance, proprioception and touch. Vertebrates and invertebrates have evolved specialized mechanosensory devices and strategies to manage this immense challenge. Vertebrates possess multiple organs, which are typically adapted to particular mechanical stimuli. In contrast, Drosophila is equipped with a polymodal sensor * the chordotonal organ (ChO) through which they are capable to perceive different mechanical stimuli including sound, touch and proprioception. Previously, I have developed a preparation to directly record from the sensory neurons of larval ChOs and managed to correlate defined mechanical inputs with the corresponding electrical outputs (Scholz et al., 2015). Our in vivo model established ChOs as interesting sites to study the molecular machinery involved in the perception of mechanical stimuli. However, genetic and functional dissection of ChO mechanics in vivo has been challenging. Here, we aim to obtain a deeper mechanistic understanding and provide new insights into the biophysics of ChOs. We correlate mechanical properties and active manipulation with neuronal activity. We focus on cytoskeleton structures and force generation.