Effects of temperature variations on the dynamics of microtubules

Abstract

Cells actively modify their behavior in on account of changes in their environment. The most important intrinsic parameter related to the intracellular environment is the temperature, the variations of which modify the dynamical behaviors of biomolecules. Indeed, an increase in temperature leads to an increase in fluidity which can damage the proteinous membrane and induce cellular death. If the temperature is extremely high, the proteins can be broken down or denatured as a consequence. However, concerning microtubules (MTs), we show that by their intrinsic behavior of self-organization, they are able to modulate temperature variations in order to avoid denaturation for values of temperature up to [Formula: see text]. Above this temperature, there is a critical point at [Formula: see text] where the wave function completely disappears which is indicative of denaturation as the biological activity of the neuronal MTs is lost. We show that temperature variations change the viscosity of the cytosol which modifies the wave function and give rise to hybrid soliton structures. These hybrid solitons come from the collision of waves propagating along MTs. We also show that the supersonic velocity of these hybrid structures can be decreasing or increasing functions of environmental temperature.