Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Fluid Physics of Life (joint session DY/BP)

BP 27.9: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 17:30–17:45, ZEU 160

Self-organization of active microtubule networks — Smrithika Subramani, •Viswa Maitreyi, and Isabella Guido — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettigen, Germany

Transport in nature is a crucial task and simple diffusion is insufficient, especially in the intracellular confinement. Relying on cytoskeletal components and their motor proteins is a strategy that have been evolved to tackle this limitation. It was observed that inside large eukaryotic cells microtubule-motor protein networks display an activity that generates a flow, called cytoplasmic streaming, that contributes to transport and distribution of components. Many efforts have been made to understand the features and function of this intracellular streaming. However, the exact mechanism behind its establishment is still unknown. Here we present a study on a synthetic system made of active microtubule networks. When confined, they self-organize and show an interesting emergent behaviour that presents transitions through different regimes. Such transitions have similarities with the process examined in the intracellular space of Drosophila oocytes during their development. Our results show that the self-assembling of the active network as well as the generated synthetic streaming is dependent on the confinement geometry. This simplified approach allows the characterization of such dependence and can provide a deeper understanding of the natural process.