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Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 50: Poster Session "Biological Physics"

AKB 50.24: Poster

Friday, March 12, 2004, 10:30–13:00, B

Dynamics of Eukaryotic Flagella — •Andreas Hilfinger1, Ingmar Riedel2, Amit Chattopadhyay1, Karsten Kruse1, Jonathon Howard2, and Frank Jülicher11Max-Planck-Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, D-01187 Dresden, Germany — 2Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, D-01307 Dresden, Germany

Many types of sperm swim in a viscous environment by beating a whiplike appendage called the flagellum. The flagellum contains a highly conserved structure called the axoneme, whose characteristic architecture is based on a cylindrical arrangement of long elastic filaments composed of microtubules. The microtubules in adjacent filaments are coupled by the molecular motor dynein. In the presence of ATP these motor proteins exert shear forces on neighbouring microtubules. The shear forces lead to bending of the axoneme because microtubule sliding near the sperm head is constrained by additional crosslinking proteins. Here we discuss how regular beating patterns can emerge as nonlinear waves due to internal stresses that are generated by a large ensemble of molecular motors working within such an elastic structure. We compare our results with experimentally observed beating patterns and analyse dynamic force distributions in active bull sperm flagella.

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