| Speaker: | Robert Dillon (Mathematics, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington) | |||
| Title: | A microscale model of flagellar motility. |
| Abstract: |
We present a fluid-mechanical model of an individual sperm flagellum
which incorporates discrete representations of the axoneme's dyneins,
microtubules and nexin links. This model, based on the immersed
boundary method, couples the internal force generation of the
molecular motors and the axoneme's passive elastic structure with the
external fluid mechanics governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. We
investigate several mechanisms for the activation of each dynein based
on the local axonemal curvature.
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