Dynamic simulation and mechanical properties of microtubules

Abstract

This work is conducted to obtain mechanical properties of microtubule. For this aim, interaction energy in alpha-beta, beta-alpha, alpha-alpha, and beta-beta dimers was calculated using the molecular dynamic simulation. Force-distance diagrams for these dimers were obtained using the relation between potential energy and force. Afterwards, instead of each tubulin, one sphere with 55 KDa weight connecting to another tubulin with a nonlinear connection such as nonlinear spring could be considered. The mechanical model of microtubule was used to calculate Young's modulus based on finite element method. Obtained Young's modulus has good agreement with previous works. Also, natural frequency of microtubules was calculated based on finite element method. © 2016 IAU, Arak Branch. All rights reserved.