Topological analysis of microtubules during cell division

Cells are complex biological systems, composed by many biopolymers, which undergo morphological changes during cell division. Microtubules are biopolymers essential for functions in the cell. Understanding the role of microtubules in cell division requires characterizing their conformations during this process. In this thesis, we model the microtubules by mathematical curves in space and use methods from Knot Theory to characterize the single and multi-chain topological complexity of such systems. We create computational methods for analyzing the topology of microtubules obtained through large electron tomography data. Our results show that the geometry/topology and entanglement of microtubules changes throughout cell division and it depends on the length of the microtubules and their locations. We also detect change in twisting of the microtubules which is associated to the motion of the chromosomes. Using Braid theory, we find that there is no correlation between multi-chain entanglement and oriented random walks in confinement

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Mandya Nagaiah, Hemanth Kumar

Contributors dc:contributor

• Panagiotou, Eleni
• Gao, Lani; Barbee, Meredith H.
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Cell division
• Microtubules--Mathematical models
• Topology

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/756

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1932