Geometric features of microtubule dynamics

SILVINA PONCE DAWSON; JOHN E. PEARSON; WILLIAM N. REYNOLDS

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

Año: 1998 vol. 257 p. 156 - 164

0378-4371

Microtubules are long and stiff polymers that form the cytoskeleton of eucaryotic cells. They perform a series of tasks, such as determining the cell shape and providing a network of “rails” along which molecular motors transport organelles to different parts of the cell. They are particularly important during the process of cell division, since they provide the forces by which replicated chromosomes are segregated into what will be the two daughter cells. Microtubules are formed from a protein called tubulin and undergo a process called dynamic instability. In this paper we study, via numerical simulations of some simplified models, how the interaction between microtubules and the diffusion of free tubulin affects their spatial organization.