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Persistent Patterns In Microtubule Dipole Lattices

Author

Listed:
  • SHUBHENDU NANDI

    (Department of Physics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33124, USA)

  • NEIL F. JOHNSON

    (Department of Physics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33124, USA)

  • JOSHUA L. COHN

    (Department of Physics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33124, USA)

Abstract

Microtubules (MTs) are cytoskeletal protein polymers orchestrating a host of important cellular functions including, but not limited to, cell support, cell division, cell motility and cell transport. We construct a toy-model of the MT lattice composed of classical vector Ising spins (dipole moments) representing the tubulin molecules, the building block of MTs. Nearest-neighbor (NN) and next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) interactions are considered within an anisotropic dielectric medium. As a consequence of the helical topology, certain spin orientations render the lattice frustrated with NN ferroelectric and NNN antiferroelectric bonds. Mapping the problem to a 2D Ising model and employing Monte Carlo methods we find that frozen clusters of spins exist at human physiological temperatures. This suggests a novel biological mechanism for storing information in living organisms, whereby the classical tubulin spin states become information bits and information gets stored in MTs in a way that is robust to thermal fluctuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Shubhendu Nandi & Neil F. Johnson & Joshua L. Cohn, 2013. "Persistent Patterns In Microtubule Dipole Lattices," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(08), pages 1-15.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:16:y:2013:i:08:n:s0219525913500331
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219525913500331
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