Microtubule circumferential vibrations in cytosol

Abstract

Microtubules are key components of the cytoskeleton and perform a variety of functions, including chromosome movement during cell division, intracellular transport of materials, movement of organelles and intracellular tracking. A combination of essential and up-to-date methods is needed for investigating the biology of microtubules and understanding the mechanisms of microtubule-drug interaction. Coupled cytosol-microtubule mechanical vibrations of microtubules are studied in this article. Such investigations provide helpful insights on the functional mechanisms of microtubules and their interactions with other proteins and drugs. The viscous cytosol and the microtubule are coupled through the continuity condition across the microtubule-cytosol interface. The stress field in the cytosol induced by vibrating microtubule is analytically determined and the coupled circumferential vibrations of the cytosol-microtubule system are investigated by developing a coupled polynomial eigenvalue problem. Finally, the variations of vibration frequencies of a coupled system with cytosol dynamic viscosity, and microtubule circumferential Young's modulus are examined. Furthermore, the validity of the present analysis is confirmed by comparing the results with those obtained from the literature.