Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 1: Active Matter I (joint session BP/CPP/DY)

BP 1.4: Talk

Monday, March 16, 2020, 10:30–10:45, HÜL 386

Reactivation of isolated axonemes by light-driven ATP regeneration system — Raheel Ahmed¹, Christin Kleinberg², Tanja Vidakovich-Koch², Kai Sundmacher², Eberhard Bodenschatz¹, and •Azam Gholami¹ — ¹MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization — ²MPI for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems

Cilia and flagella are slender cellular appendages whose regular beating pattern pumps fluids, for example the mucus in mammalian airways, or propels unicellular organisms such as the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Cilia and flagella have a microtubule-based structure called axoneme which performs whip-lash-like motion to provide motility. This oscillatory motion is powered by dynein molecular motors that generate active stresses for ciliary beat in the presence of ATP. In this work, we have successfully integrated light-driven energy module for continuous generation of ATP. This light-driven ATP regeneration system is built through bottom-up assembly of FOF1- ATP synthase and bacteriorhodopsin into two different types of artificial hybrid membranes based on a diblock copolymer (PBd-PEO) and a graft copolymer (PDMS- g-PEO). After illumination of the energy module with light, we mixed it with axonemes isolated from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and observed actively beating axonemes for many hours. Interestingly, the axonemes beat even at low concentrations of ATP well below 50 µM.