Dresden 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 7: Posters: Cell adhesion, mechanics and migration
BP 7.18: Poster
Montag, 31. März 2014, 17:30–19:30, P3
Spiral actin-polymerization waves can generate amoeboidal cell crawling — •Alexander Dreher1, Igor Aranson2, and Karsten Kruse1 — 1Theoretische Physik, Universität des Saarlandes, Postfach 151150, 66041 Saarbrücken, Germany — 2Argonne National Laboratory, Materials Science Division, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, USA
Amoeboidal cell crawling on solid substrates is characterized by protrusions that apparently randomly appear along the cell periphery and drive the cell forward. It is well-established that the protrusions result from local polymerization of the actin cytoskeleton. However, it is currently unknown how the formation of protrusions is triggered and whether the appearance of subsequent protrusions is coordinated. Recently, spontaneous formation of polymerization waves was observed in the actin cytoskeleton, which have been proposed to orchestrate the cytoskeletal dynamics during cell crawling. Here we study the impact of cytoskeletal polymerization waves on cell migration using a phase-field approach. In addition to directionally moving states, we found states reminiscent of the amoeboidal cell crawling. In this framework, new protrusions are seen to emerge from a nucleation process generating spiral actin waves in the cell interior. Nucleation of new spirals does not require noise, but occurs in a state that is apparently displaying spatio-temporal chaos.