Physical Regulation of Microtubule Biomechanics

这项研究的目的是了解和控制被称为微管的细胞骨架细丝的机械特性。微管是纳米尺度的细丝，其力学性质对细胞的形状、细胞分裂和细胞运动具有影响。了解单个微管的力学是如何控制的，对于创建一个准确的定量和预测模型，将单个微管的强度与整个细胞骨架网络的强度联系起来至关重要。这项工作将系统地测量和建模晶格缺陷，相关蛋白质和翻译后修饰如何影响微管刚性。这项工作代表了第一个系统的研究如何微管晶格可以直接影响单微管力学。所提出的方法将揭示新的信息，微管的结构可以如何影响其力学。这些结果将对基础细胞生物学产生影响，因为微管对许多细胞过程至关重要。此外，微管是由相同的蛋白质亚基组成的熵驱动的自组装系统。阐明晶格缺陷、外部结合伙伴和亚基修饰如何改变该系统的机械性质将对由胶体、聚合物和蛋白质制成的其他自组装凝聚态系统产生影响。微管及其相关蛋白质可以作为纳米尺度组装的生物支架。这项工作将使生物工程的新型生物模因材料的微管细胞骨架系统。确定单个微管结构的机械性能对于未来可能涉及它们的工程过程至关重要。这里提出的研究是真正的跨学科，结合凝聚态物理，生物工程，材料科学和细胞生物学领域。

The goal of this research is to understand and control the mechanical properties of the cytoskeletal filament called microtubules. Microtubules are nano-scale filaments, and the mechanical properties have ramifications for the shape of cells, cell division, and cell motility. Understanding how the mechanics of single microtubules is controlled is essential for creating an accurate quantitative and predictive model to relate the strength of single microtubules to the strength of the entire cytoskeletal network. This work will systematically measure and model how lattice defects, associated proteins, and post-translational modifications can affect microtubule rigidity. This work represents the first systematic study of how the microtubule lattice can directly affect the mechanics of single microtubules.The proposed approach will reveal new information about how the structure of microtubules can affect its mechanics. The results will have an impact on basic cell biology, since microtubules are essential for many cellular processes. Moreover, microtubules are an entropically-driven, self-assembled system made from identical protein subunits. Elucidating how mechanical properties of this system can be altered by lattice defects, external binding partners, and modifications to the subunits will have ramifications for other self-assembled condensed matter systems made of colloids, polymers, and proteins. Microtubules and their related proteins can be harnessed as a biological-scaffold for nano-scale assemblies. This work will enable bio-engineering of novel bio-memetic materials from the microtubule-cytoskeletal system. Determining the mechanical properties of the individual microtubule structure is essential for future engineering processes that may involve them. The research proposed here is truly interdisiciplinary, combining the fields of condensed matter physics, bio-engineering, materials science, and cell biology.