Resumen de Modelling of self-organizaton of microtubules in plant cells

Alexander Muratov

• Microtubules are ubiquitous elements of any eucaryotic cell, serving many functions at different stages of its life. In plant cells they form so-called plant cell cortex, where they are organized into parallel arrays. These arrays serve as a matrix of synthesis of a plant cell wall, defining the direction of growth. Microtubule arrays are sensible to tropic stimuli. However, the nature of such sensibility is still not well established. We provide a computational analysis of this phenomenon. Using both kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations and theoretical investigation, we show that compression due to mechanical stress may cause orientation of microtubules along major stress lines. We also show that anisotropic distribution of chemical agents interacting with microtubule-associated proteins may also cause orientation of microtubules. Such mechanisms are primarily connected with gravitropism but similar reorientations of microtubules in response to light may suggest that these mechanisms can also be relevant for other tropisms.