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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 13: Cytoskeleton
BP 13.6: Talk
Wednesday, September 7, 2022, 11:15–11:30, H15
Mechanical properties of keratin and vimentin intermediate filaments — •Charlotta Lorenz1, Johanna Forsting1, Stefan Klumpp2, and Sarah Köster1 — 1Institute for X-Ray Physics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany — 2Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Different cell types require different mechanical properties. Prominent examples include cell contracting muscle cells, or migrating versus non-migrating cells. Cells change from a migrating to a non-migrating phenotype during cancer metastasis, wound-healing and embryogenesis (epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition). Interestingly, the expression of different intermediate filament (IF) proteins correlates with this transition: epithelial-like cells express mostly keratin, whereas mesenchymal cells primiarily express vimentin. We compare the mechanical response of keratin and vimentin on the single filament level using optical tweezers. We find that both filament types dissipate a large amount of mechanical input energy, which predestines them to act as a cellular shock absorbers, yet by very different mechanisms, internal friction of sliding filament subunits, or nonequilibrium unfolding of alpha helices for keratin and vimentin filaments, respectively. We conclude that cells can tune their mechanics by differential expression of keratin versus vimentin.