A Computational Study Of Dynein-driven Ciliary Motion In The Embryonic Node

Early in vertebrate development, the surface of the embryo form a temporary structure-style type of depression(called embryonic node). The nodal cilia located in the embryonic node can cause embryo surface liquid one-way movement by itself rotation movement, thus stimulates the embryonic perception for the left-right direction, guiding zoning development process. Therefore, understanding the moving mechanism of nodal cilia plays an important role in explore the vertebrate development. The characteristic architecture of nodal cilia is based on a cylindrical arrangement of 9 doublet. The rotational motion of the cilia is triggered by the dynein motors located between adjacent doublets by converting the chemical energy into mechanical work.Restricted by the inherent difficulties of experiments,we can get the internal cilia ultrastructure, but the dynein activation patterns in moving cilia cannot be directly observed.Thus we employ the method of image technology and computational simulation to explore the Kinetic mechanism of embryonic cilia. Simulate the ciliary motion produced by different dynein activation patterns, and compared with embryonic cilia rotation movement, proposing possible dyneinactivity Regularity. The results showed that,toproducetherotationalmovementof embryonic cilia,thedyneinactivityistransferredclockwise(lookingfromthetip)betweentheninedoubletmic rotubules,andalongeachmicrotubule,thedyneinactivationshouldoccurfasteratthebasalregiona ndslowerwhenitisclosetotheciliarytip.This study preliminarily reveals the embryonic cilia movement mechanism, and provides theoretical basis for adjust the cilia movement effectively by manipulating dynein activity.