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SUMMARY:Survival of the aligned: Modeling the cortical microtubule array i
 n plant cells - Bela Mulder\, FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physi
 cs\, Wageningen University
DTSTART:20090529T131500Z
DTEND:20090529T141500Z
UID:TALK17216@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Kevin Chalut
DESCRIPTION:Plant cells typically elongate along a single growth axis. In 
 order to sustain this anisotropy the cell requires spatially extended stru
 ctures that encode the proper geometrical constraints. The most prominent 
 of these structures is the so-called interphase cortical array. Its compon
 ents are microtubules: long filamentous protein aggregates that exhibit an
  interesting intrinsic dynamics\, in which they stochastically switch betw
 een periods of growth and shrinkage. In the cortical array the microtubule
 s are attached to the inner side of the plasmamembrane\, effectively creat
 ing a 2D system\, in which the only motion is caused by (de)polymerization
 . Because of the reduced dimensionality growing microtubules can now colli
 de with pre-existing ones\, giving rise to an angle dependent scattering e
 vents\, in which the the colliding microtubule can either alter its course
  to grow along side the other microtubule\, switch to the shrinking state\
 , or simply slip over the obstacle. We address the question whether these 
 interactions are sufficient to explain to explain the high degree of orien
 tational alignment found in the cortical array. To that end we will presen
 t results both from event driven stochastic simulations and a coarse-grain
 ed dynamical model. 
LOCATION:Pippard Lecture Theatre\, Cavendish Laboratory
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