Buckling instabilities of semiflexible filaments in biological systems [Elektronische Ressource] / von Krzysztof Konrad Baczyński

Buckling instabilities of semi exiblefllaments in biological systemsDissertationzur Erlangung des akademischen GradesDoktor der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.)in der Wissenschaftsdisziplin Theoretische Physikeingereicht an derMathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultat˜der Universitat Potsdam˜angefertigt amMax-Planck-Institutfur Kolloid- und Grenz achenforschung Potsdam˜ ˜Abteilung Theorie und Bio-SystemevonKrzysztof Konrad Baczyns¶ kiPotsdam, Mai 2009 Published online at the Institutional Repository of the University of Potsdam: URL http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2009/3792/ URN urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-37927 [http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-37927] For my familyThe mind is like a parachute.It works only when it is open.Frank ZappaAbstractWe study buckling instabilities of fllaments in biological systems. Filaments in a cell are thebuildingblocksofthecytoskeleton.Theyareresponsibleforthemechanicalstabilityofcellsandplay an important role in intracellular transport by molecular motors, which transport cargosuch as organelles along cytoskeletal fllaments. Filaments of the cytoskeleton are semi?exiblepolymers, i.e., their bending energy is comparable to the thermal energy such that they can beviewed as elastic rods on the nanometer scale, which exhibit pronounced thermal uctuations.