DECEMBER 3, 2020
TITLE AND ABSTRACT:
"Intracellular Transport of Intermediate Filaments Driven by Antagonistic Motor Proteins"
Abstract:
Intermediate filaments are one of the components of the cytoskeleton; they are involved in cell mechanics, signalling and migration. The organisation of intermediate filaments in networks is the major determinant of their functions in cells. Their spatio-temporal organization in cells results from the interplay between assembly/disassembly processes and different types of transport.
For instance, intermediate filaments, which are long elastic fibers, are transported in cells along microtubules, another component of the cytoskeleton, by antagonistic motor proteins. How elastic fibers are efficiently transported by antagonistic motors is not well understood and is difficult to measure with current experimental techniques. Adapting the tug-of-war paradigm for vesicle-like cargos, a mathematical model is developed to describe the motion of an elastic fiber punctually bound to antagonistic motors. Combining stochastic and deterministic dynamical simulations and qualitative analysis, the asymptotic behaviour of the model, which defines the mode of transport of fibers, is studied [1,2]. The effects of initial conditions, reflecting the intracellular context, model parameters and functionals, describing motors and fiber properties, and noise, outlining other intracellular processes, are characterized.
Work in collaboration with J. Dallon (BYU, Provo, Utah, USA), C. Leduc and S. Etienne-Manneville (Institut Pasteur, Paris, France)
[1] Dallon, J., Leduc, C., Etienne-Manneville, S., and Portet, S. Stochastic modeling reveals how motor protein and filament properties affect intermediate filament transport. J. Theor. Biol. 464: 132-148 (2019).
[2] Portet, S., Leduc, C., Etienne-Manneville, S., Dallon, J. Deciphering the transport of elastic filaments by antagonistic motor proteins. Phys. Rev. E. 99: 042414 (2019).
SPEAKER:
Stéphanie Portet, Professor at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Mathematics
(Learn more about the speaker here)
WHEN:
Thursday, December 3, 2020
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Meet and Greet:
2:00pm-2:30pm CST
Talk:
2:30pm-3:20pm CST
Questions:
3:20pm-3:30pm CST
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WHEN:
The event took place via Zoom due to Covid-19 restricitons.
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Watch recorded talk here:
https://usask.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=94fe9617-2f0a-476d-9973-ac86017d83e7