Pressure of Actin Filaments

TYPEStudent Seminar
Speaker:Boris Timchenko
Date:19.06.2016
Time:13:30 - 14:30
Location:Lidow Nathan Rosen (300)
Abstract:Recent studies of a broad class of active systems show that their pressure depends on the details of the
confining wall potential. Therefore, their pressure does not admit an equation of state.
Here we ask the same question for a canonical model in biophysics - an actin filament acting against a wall.
The model has been extensively studied in the past and the force exerted by the filaments has been evaluated.
We find that, in fact, the force depends on the exact shape of the wall on which the filament acts. This renders
previous discussion on the forces exerted by filaments meaningless. Possible implications will be discussed.