Primary cilia have a length-dependent persistence length

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Abstract

The fluctuating position of an optically trapped cilium tip under untreated and Taxol-treated conditions was used to characterize mechanical properties of the cilium axoneme and its basal body by combining experimental, analytical,and computational tools. We provide, for the first time, evidence that the persistence length of a ciliary axoneme is length-dependent; longer cilia are stiffer than shorter cilia. We demonstrate that this apparent length dependence can be understood by a combination of modeling axonemal microtubules as anisotropic elastic shells and including actomyosin-driven stochastic basal body motion.Our results also demonstrate the possibility of using observable ciliary dynamics to probe interior cytoskeletal dynamics. It is hoped that our improved characterization of cilia will result in deeper understanding of the biological function of cellular flow sensing by this organelle.

Identifier

85073949878 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-019-01220-7

e-ISSN

16177940

ISSN

16177959

PubMed ID

31501964

First Page

445

Last Page

460

Issue

2

Volume

19

Fund Ref

Nanjing Institute of Technology

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