Regensburg 2019 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 6: Poster I

BP 6.60: Poster

Monday, April 1, 2019, 17:30–19:30, Poster B2

Active contraction of biopolymer networks in elastic confinement — •Johannes Flommersfeld — Center for NanoScience (CeNS), Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilans-Universität München, Germany

Mechanical properties of cells are largely determined by their cytoskeleton, a complex network consisting of biopolymers and molecular crosslinks. The interaction of actin filaments and the molecular motor myosin plays a central role in cell biology, since it gives rise to various forms of cell movement including muscle contractions and cell division. In vivo such actin myosin networks are usually confined by an elastic cell membrane. Recent studies of confined active fluids have revealed a strong dependence of the systems properties on the parameters of the confining walls, which is in stark contrast to passive systems. Since actin-myosin assemblies are intrinsically active, these findings raise the question if the properties of the boundaries influence the behavior of such networks. To investigate this question, we present a simple model of contractile networks, with which we can investigate how the boundaries steer the dynamics and the final state of an actively contracting network.