REPTATION OF MICROTUBULES IN F-ACTIN NETWORKS : EFFECTS OF FILAMENT STIFFNESS AND NETWORK TOPOLOGY ON REPTATION DYNAMICS

摘要

The thermally driven motions of fluorescently labeled microtubules embedded in a network, of filamentous actin polymers are analysed as the diffusion of a rod-like polymer within a virtual tube formed by the surrounding semiflexible actin filaments. The apparent diffusion constant parallel to the tube scales with the inverse of the microtubule length and the magnitude is consistant with diffusion through a medium with a viscosity of approximately 10 centipoise. Introduction of crosslinks between the actin filaments does not alter the diffusion of the microtubules in the actin network.