Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 12: Poster 2
BP 12.32: Poster
Tuesday, September 6, 2022, 17:30–19:30, P4
How do muscles self-assemble? — •Francine Kolley1, Ian D. Estabrook1, Clement Rodier2, Frank Schnorrer2, and Benjamin M. Friedrich1,3 — 1cfaed, TU Dresden — 2IBDM, Aix Marseille University — 3Physics of Life, TU Dresden.
For voluntary movements, all animal life relies myofibrils in striated muscle, which are highly organised crystal-like cytoskeletal structures comprising chains of micrometer-sized sarcomeres. The size of sarcomeres is supposedly set by giant proteins such as titin. Titin elastically links myosin molecular motors in the middle of a sarcomere to a structure called Z-disc rich in actin crosslinkers at the sarcomere boundary. To investigate putative mechanisms for the self-assembly of myofibrils, we develop minimal mathematical models. We show that minimal models accounting for non-local interactions between three key proteins is sufficient to account for the spontaneous emergence of periodic sarcomeric patterns. We employ mean-field models, as well as agent-based simulations, which reveal the influence of small-number fluctuations on emergent patterns. Additionally, analysing images of the Drosophila flight muscle during early development provided by the Schnorrer lab (IBDM, Marseilles), we were able to identify titin as the first protein forming periodic patterns, with myosin and later actin following subsequently, which constrains possible models.