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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 27: Nonequilibrium Processes and Self-Organisation

BP 27.6: Talk

Friday, March 30, 2007, 12:00–12:15, H43

Self-organization in systems of treadmilling filaments — •Konstantin Doubrovinski and Karsten Kruse — Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 151150, D-66041, Saarbrücken

The polymerization and depolymerization of cytoskeletal filaments plays an important role in many subcellular processes. It can produce forces and lead to effective filament transport. An example of the latter is provided by treadmilling, which occurs when subunits are added one end at the same rate as they are removed at the other. Addition and removal of subunits is influenced by a large number of proteins. In fish melanophores such porteins are coupled to color pigments. There, treadmilling filaments and polymerization affecting proteins can self-organize into states of agglomerated or dispersed pigments which allows the fish to change color. A theoretical treatment of such systems is difficult as distributions of filaments lengths must be taken into account. We present a new mesoscopic approach which allows for numerical as well as analytical analysis. We find a multitude of patterns such as asters, traveling fronts and solitary waves. We apply this formalism to melanophores and point out possible implications for cell locomotion.