https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15129-9
Regular Article
A nonequilibrium power balance relation for analyzing dissipative filament dynamics
1
Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 79104, Freiburg, Germany
2
Groupe BioPhysStat, LCP-A2MC, Université de Lorraine, 57078, Metz, France
3
Institut Charles Sadron UPR22-CNRS, 67034, Strasbourg, France
* e-mail: fziebert@gmail.com
** e-mail: kulic@unistra.fr
Received:
11
June
2015
Accepted:
27
November
2015
Published online:
22
December
2015
Biofilaments like F-actin or microtubules, as well as cilia, flagella, or filament bundles, are often deformed by distributed and time-dependent external forces. It is highly desirable to characterize these filaments' mechanics in an efficient way, either using a single experiment or a high throughput method. We here propose a dynamic power balance approach to study nonequilibrium filament dynamics and exemplify it both experimentally and theoretically by applying it to microtubule gliding assay dynamics. Its usefulness is highlighted by the experimental determination of the lateral friction coefficient for microtubules on kinesins. In contrast to what is usually assumed, friction is anisotropic, in a similar fashion as hydrodynamic friction. We also exemplify, by considering a microtubule buckling event, that if at least one parameter is known in advance, all other parameters can be determined by analyzing a single time-dependent experiment.
Key words: Living systems: Cellular Processes
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015