MOLECULAR MECHANICS OF CYTOSKELETAL COMPONENTS

Summary Semiflexible polymers are of great biological importance in determining the mechanical properties of cells. We have used laser interferometry to passively trap and detect the motions of pairs of micron sized silica spheres in solutions of semiflexible polymer. The single-and dual-bead frequency dependent complex shear moduli were extracted from the auto-and cross-correlation response of the beads respectively, with the response being derived from position fluctuation data using dispersion relations from linear response theory