Oscillation modes of microtubules.
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_49D4649DC6D2
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Oscillation modes of microtubules.
Journal
Biology of the Cell
ISSN
0248-4900 (Print)
ISSN-L
0248-4900
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2004
Volume
96
Number
9
Pages
697-700
Language
english
Abstract
Microtubules are long, filamentous protein complexes which play a central role in several cellular physiological processes, such as cell division transport and locomotion. Their mechanical properties are extremely important since they determine the biological function. In a recently published experiment [Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 248101], microtubule's Young's and shear moduli were simultaneously measured, proving that they are highly anisotropic. Together with the known structure, this finding opens the way to better understand and predict their mechanical behavior under a particular set of conditions. In the present study, we modeled microtubules by using the finite elements method and analyzed their oscillation modes. The analysis revealed that oscillation modes involving a change in the diameter of the microtubules strongly depend on the shear modulus. In these modes, the correlation times of the movements are just slightly shorter than diffusion times of free molecules surrounding the microtubule. It could be therefore speculated that the matching of the two timescales could play a role in facilitating the interactions between microtubules and MT associated proteins, and between microtubules and tubulins themselves.
Keywords
Animals, Caenorhabditis elegans/physiology, Humans, Microtubules/physiology, Models, Biological
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
24/01/2008 14:35
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:57