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SUMMARY:Physical description of mitotic spindle orientation during cell di
 vision - Dr Andrea Cecilia Jimenez Dalmaroni\, Max Planck Institute for Ph
 ysics of Complex Systems\n\, Dresden\, Germany
DTSTART:20070511T131500Z
DTEND:20070511T141500Z
UID:TALK6853@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jurij Kotar
DESCRIPTION:During cell division\, the duplicated chromosomes are physical
 ly separated\nby the action of the mitotic spindle. The mitotic spindle is
  a dynamic\nstructure of the cytoskeleton\, which consists of two microtub
 ule asters.\nIts orientation defines the axis along which the cell divides
 . Recent\nexperiments on dividing cells\, which adhere to patterned substr
 ates\, show\nthat the spindle orientation depends on the spatial distribut
 ion of cell\nadhesion sites. In this talk I will show that the experimenta
 lly\nobserved spindle orientation can be understood as the result of the a
 ction\nof cortical force generators acting on the spindle microtubules. We
 \ndevelop a simple physical description of the  spindle mechanics based on
 \nthe assumption that the local activity of force  generators  is controll
 ed\nby the  spatial distribution of cell adhesion sites. We calculate the\
 ntorque acting on the spindle\, as well as the energy profile and the\nang
 ular distribution of spindle orientation. Our model accounts for the\npref
 erred spindle orientation\, as well as the full shape of the angular\ndist
 ributions of spindle orientation observed in a wide variety of pattern\nge
 ometries.
LOCATION:IRC in Superconductivity Seminar Room\, Cavendish Laboratory
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