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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 8: Poster Session Ia
BP 8.3: Poster
Monday, March 18, 2024, 18:00–20:30, Poster C
Influence of the cytoskeletal surrounding on microtubules in cells — •Anna Blob1, Roman David Ventzke1, 2, Thomas Giacomo Nies2, Axel Munk2, Laura Schaedel3, and Sarah Köster1 — 1Institute for X-Ray Physics, University of Göttingen — 2Institute for Mathematical Stochastics, University of Göttingen — 3Center for Biophysics, Saarland University
The cytoskeleton in eucaryotic cells determines essential cellular functions and properties. It is an intricate network of three different filamentous proteins, microtubules, actin filaments and intermediate filaments, each of which has unique features. Microtubules are important for intracellular transport and withstand compressive forces while exhibiting characteristic bending and buckling in cells. Interactions between cytoskeletal filaments have been found, such as the templating of microtubules by vimentin intermediate filaments in cells. Yet, the scope and consequences of such cytoskeletal interdepence are not fully understood. Here, we investigate how the orientation and bending of microtubules in cells is influenced by actin and vimentin intermediate filaments. We compare microtubule networks in vimentin-knockout and wildtype mouse fibroblasts on micropatterns and disturb the actin network chemically. We find that microtubules are radially oriented regardless of the presence of vimentin or actin. The local curvature of microtubules is not influenced either, even if the cells are under mechanical compression. Our study suggests that the organization and mechanical behavior of microtubules in cells may be more independent of the surrounding cytoskeleton than expected.
Keywords: cytoskeleton; microtubules; vimentin; cells; micropatterns