Statistical Physics in Biology

Microtubules

1. Filaments in the cycloskeleton; Major types:
   • Actin filaments
     • Structure
     • Treadmilling and driving mechanism
   • Intermediate filaments
   • Microtubules
2. Microtubule structure:
   • Tubulin subunits
   • Protofilaments, nucleation and growth
   • Polarity
3. Dynamic Instability [Mitchison, T., and M. Kirchner. “Microtubule Assembly Nucleated by Isolated Centrosomes.” Nature 312, (1984): 232.]
   • Verde, F., et al. “Control of microtubule dynamics and length by cyclin A-and cyclin B-dependent kinases in Xenopus egg extracts.” Journal Cell Biology 118, (1992): 1097. [Dogterom, M., and S. Leibler. “Physical aspects of the growth and regulation of microtubule structures.” Physical Review Letters 70, (1993): 1347-50.]
4. Search strategy
   • Mitosis
   • Condensation of RecA on ssDNA as a tool for computation by stochastic assembly
   • Kinetic proof-reading
     • Hopfield, J.J. “Kinetic Proofreading: A New Mechanism for Reducing Errors in Biosynthetic Processes Requiring High Specificity.” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 71, No. 10(1974): 4135-4139.
5. Ndlec, F.J., et al. “Self-organization of microtubules and motors.” Nature 389, (1997): 305-308.

Some Related Links

• Microtubule links
• Nanosimulation of the cytoskeleton (a PhD thesis by Christopher Betts)

(Detailed Lecture Notes (PDF))