Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Postersession II

BP 10.19: Poster

Montag, 12. März 2018, 17:30–19:30, Poster C

Intracellular passive and active microrheology in dividing epithelial cells — •Sebastian Hurst and Timo Betz — Institute of Cell Biology, ZMBE, University of Münster, Von-Esmarch-Straße 56, 48149 Münster

While there is a good understanding of chromosome segregation during cell division, surprisingly little is known about how the different organelles are distributed during this fundamental process. It is generally assumed that organelles are not systematic transported to the daughter cells but that their distribution relies on passive diffusion and hence stochastic transport throughout the cell. Although diffusion will provide fast mixing of small molecules, it is not clear if this can explain the even distribution of larger organelles with low copy number, especially in highly polarized cells.

Active, targeted transport of large organelles during cell division is mainly known for asymmetric cell division, and has not been reported in symmetric division. Another attractive mechanism for equal distribution of organelles during cell division is the increase of random mobility. This could be achieved by active, undirected fluctuations e.g. generated through motor protein activity. To test this hypothesis that active fluctuations help distributing organelles we perform optical tweezer based passive and active microrheology measurements with exogenous particles inside dividing MDCK cells. The results are used to calculate the intracellular viscoelasticity and mechanical activity to pinpoint the influence of active cytosolic mixing during cell division.