Dresden 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 17: Poster II
BP 17.25: Poster
Mittwoch, 25. März 2009, 17:15–19:45, P3
Understanding the effect of virus infection on cellular architecture — •Julian Weichsel1,3, Nikolas Herold2, Maik Lehmann2, Hans-Georg Kräusslich2, and Ulrich S. Schwarz1,3 — 1Bioquant, Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 267, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany — 2Department of Virology, Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany — 3University of Karlsruhe, Theoretical Biophysics Group, Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
The filament networks of the cytoskeleton are responsible for a variety of essential cellular processes, including force generation, shape changes and intracellular transport by motor proteins. Therefore even subtle changes in the network architecture are potentially able to affect vital functions of the cell. This fact is exploited by different viruses in different ways. In order to quantify the effect of virus infection on cellular architecture, we have used image processing to compare cells treated with drugs or virus particles to their wildtype analogues. A large number of automated high-throughput fluorescence images have been processed and structure parameters of the actin cytoskeleton have been extracted. This procedure can also be used to parameterize theoretical models for the actin cytoskeleton. We have implemented a random fiber network which is characterized by fiber density and length. In computer simulations we find that small changes in the microscopic parameters can lead to dramatic effects for the transport and mechanical properties of the overall network.