dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaNovel steady state of a microtubule assembly in a confined geometry
| Authors | Bindu S. Govindan, William. B. Spillman, Jr. |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0401004 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0401004 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.032901 |
Abstract
We study the steady state of an assembly of microtubules in a confined volume, analogous to the situation inside a cell where the cell boundary forms a natural barrier to growth. We show that the dynamical equations for growing and shrinking microtubules predict the existence of two steady states, with either exponentially decaying or exponentially increasing distribution of microtubule lengths. We identify the regimes in parameter space corresponding to these steady states. In the latter case, the apparent catastrophe frequency near the boundary was found to be significantly larger than that in the interior. Both the exponential distribution of lengths and the increase in the catastrophe frequency near the cell margin is in excellent agreement with recent experimental observations.
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"abstract": "We study the steady state of an assembly of microtubules in a confined\nvolume, analogous to the situation inside a cell where the cell boundary forms\na natural barrier to growth. We show that the dynamical equations for growing\nand shrinking microtubules predict the existence of two steady states, with\neither exponentially decaying or exponentially increasing distribution of\nmicrotubule lengths. We identify the regimes in parameter space corresponding\nto these steady states. In the latter case, the apparent catastrophe frequency\nnear the boundary was found to be significantly larger than that in the\ninterior. Both the exponential distribution of lengths and the increase in the\ncatastrophe frequency near the cell margin is in excellent agreement with\nrecent experimental observations.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0401004",
"authors": [
"Bindu S. Govindan",
"William. B. Spillman, Jr."
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.SC",
"q-bio.BM"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevE.70.032901",
"title": "Novel steady state of a microtubule assembly in a confined geometry",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0401004"
},
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