Open AccessThe role of nonmuscle myosin 2A and 2B in the regulation of mesenchymal cell contact guidance
Author(s) -
Alexander Zhovmer,
Erdem D. Tabdanov,
Houxun Miao,
Han Wen,
Jinqiu Chen,
Xiaoling Luo,
Xuefei Ma,
Paolo P. Provenzano,
Robert S. Adelstein
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
molecular biology of the cell
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.463
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1939-4586
pISSN - 1059-1524
DOI - 10.1091/mbc.e19-01-0071
Subject(s) - cell polarity , microbiology and biotechnology , microtubule , biology , polarity (international relations) , myosin , contact inhibition , centrosome , cell , biophysics , cell cycle , biochemistry
Contact guidance refers to the ability of cells to sense the geometrical features of the microenvironment and respond by changing their shape and adopting the appropriate orientation. Inhibition and ablation of nonmuscle myosin 2 (NM2) paralogues have demonstrated their importance for contact guidance. However, the specific roles of the NM2 paralogues have not been systematically studied. In this work we use micropatterned substrates to examine the roles of NM2A and NM2B and to elucidate the relationship of the microenvironment, actomyosin, and microtubules in contact guidance. We show that contact guidance is preserved following loss of NM2B and that expression of NM2A alone is sufficient to establish an appropriate orientation of the cells. Loss of NM2B and overexpression of NM2A result in a prominent cell polarization that is found to be linked to the increased alignment of microtubules with the actomyosin scaffold. Suppression of actomyosin with blebbistatin reduces cell polarity on a flat surface, but not on a surface with contact guidance cues. This indicates that the lost microtubule–actomyosin interactions are compensated for by microtubule–microenvironment interactions, which are sufficient to establish cell polarity through contact guidance.