Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 30: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 30.23: Poster
Donnerstag, 17. März 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3
Optical trapping and motility of trypanosomes — •Eric Stellamanns1, Sravanti Uppaluri1, Niko Heddergott3, Markus Engstler3, and Thomas Pfohl1,2 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany — 2Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland — 3Department of Zoology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
Trypanosomes are unicellular human bloodstream parasites and the causative agent of the so called African sleeping sickness. They are spread by the bite of the tsetse fly and represent a thread to an estimated number of 60 million people in 36 sub Saharan countries. Motility is of paramount importance to cell survival and hence pathogenicity of the parasite. Using optical tweezing methods in microfluidic cell culture environments we are able to analyze cellular motility to a great detail and measure the forces they generate. We find that trypanosome propagation forces are dependent on cell cycle and growth of the flagellum. Furthermore we describe that motility has a broad spectrum not only over the population but also on the single cell level.