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NJIT Mathematical Biology Seminar

Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 4:00pm
Cullimore Hall 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

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Impact of the Dynamic Cytoskeleton on Intracellular Sub-Diffusion: A Local Motion Analysis

Amitabha Nandi

Yale University

Intracellular transport is a complex interplay of ballistic transport along filaments and of diffusive motion, reliably delivering material and allowing for cell differentiation, migration and proliferation. The diffusive regime, including subdiffusive, Brownian, and superdiffusive motion, is of particular interest for inferring information about the dynamics of the cytoskeleton morphology during intracellular transport. We study intracellular transport in Dictyostelium discoideum cells by single particle tracking of fluorescent nanoparticles. We focus on intracellular subdiffusion and the impact of cytoskeleton compartments like microtubules and actin filaments. A local mean-square displacement (MSD) analysis of the experimental trajectory yield distributions for the effective diffusion coefficient and the local MSD exponent. Experimental results are compared to simulations of a data-driven Langevin model with finite velocity correlations that captures essential statistical features of the local MSD algorithm. We identify both microtubules and F-actin as the cause for intracellular subdiffusion. Our findings might give insights into material transport and information exchange in living cells, which might facilitate gaining control over cell functions.