Abstract

Within eukaryotic cells, cytoskeletal structures are a category of organelles that serve functions ranging from supporting cell geometry to locomotion. These functions require a coordinated effort of regulatory proteins, which interact with the cytoskeleton distinctively. Severing proteins, which can fragment cytoskeletal structures at their binding sites, are one such example. In this work, using stochastic modeling, we model the interaction of severing proteins on bare cytoskeletal filaments and bundled filaments, which are larger collections of individual filaments. We focus on two types of cytoskeletal protein structures in this work: cylindrical microtubules and linear actin filaments. In the case of microtubules, we study the severing dynamics on a cylindrical lattice using a computational model. We calculate quantities such as severing time and severing probability as a function of different parameters and compare them to published experimental data. Next, we explore the role of severing proteins in the assembly and control of the length of actin filaments and bundles. With severing proteins included, these structures assemble faster but exhibit a larger variance in their steady state length distributions. Our study also highlights different ways in which severing-based control mechanisms can be contrasted to other length control mechanisms.

Publication Date

7-18-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Physics (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Physics and Astronomy, School of

College

College of Science

Advisor

Lishibanya Mohapatra

Advisor/Committee Member

Ephraim Agyingi

Advisor/Committee Member

Moumita Das

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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