TOPOLOGICAL PHONONS IN MICROTUBULES: THE LINK BETWEEN LOCAL STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF MICROTUBULES

We have developed a model for analyzing thermal energy propagation through a microtubule by tracking its movement over time, and extracting a phonon spectrum of energy states and the speed of energy propagation through a microtubule. The microtubule is a self-assembling protein structure, and it has been reported that changes in the tubulin proteins that make up the bulk structure of the microtubule can alter its dynamic properties, in particular the polymerization and depolymerization rates. The pathways that dictate how local structure affects system wide dynamics has yet to be elucidated by current measurement techniques. This is because previous methods of defining structural properties of the microtubule hinge on static parameters, such as persistence length and Young's modulus, which neglect the dynamic properties of the microtubule and the anisotropic behavior of these local changes. Our methods look at the vibrational energy propagation through microtubules as an energy source for the energy intensive dynamics of the microtubule. In our methodology, the increased spatial resolution accommodates anisotropy along the length of the microtubule and paves the way for developing a dynamic measurement of microtubule mechanics.