Fluid mediated mechanical effects in biology of single cells: Hydrodynamics in strategies for early stage biofilm formation and DNA damage during migration in cancer cells
In the first part of the talk, I will describe surface colonization strategies of the motile bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. During early stages of biofilm formation, the majority of cells that land on a surface eventually detach. After a prolonged lag time, cells begin to cover the surface rapidly. Reversible attachments provide cells and their descendants with multigenerational memory of the surface that primes the planktonic population for colonization. Two different strains use different surface sensing machinery and show different colonization strategies. We use theoretical modelling to investigate how the hydrodynamics of type IV pili and flagella activity lead to increased detachment rates and show that the contribution from this hydrodynamic effect plays a role in the different colonization strategies observed in the two strains.

In the second part of the talk, I will show that when cells migrate through constricting pores, there is an increase in DNA damage and mutations. Experimental observations show that this breakage is not due to mechanical stress. I present an elastic-fluid model of the cell nucleus, coupled to kinetics of DNA breakage and repair proposing a mechanism by which nuclear deformation can lead to DNA damage. I show that segregation of soluble repair factors from the chromatin during migration leads to a decrease in the repair rate and an accumulation of damage that is sufficient to account for the extent of DNA damage observed experimentally.
Date: 29 November 2019, 14:00 (Friday, 7th week, Michaelmas 2019)
Venue: Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details: L3
Speaker: Dr Rachel Bennett (University of Bristol)
Organising department: Mathematical Institute
Organiser: Sara Jolliffe (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: sara.jolliffe@maths.ox.ac.uk
Host: Helen Byrne (University of Oxford)
Part of: Mathematical Biology and Ecology
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Sara Jolliffe