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Integration of mechanical and chemical signals in cell protrusion
Author(s) -
Danuser Gaudenz
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.409.3
Subject(s) - cytoskeleton , actin cytoskeleton , actin , coupling (piping) , cell adhesion , microbiology and biotechnology , cell , biology , biological system , chemistry , materials science , genetics , metallurgy
Cells move by forces associated with the assembly of an actin cytoskeleton network which are balanced by adhesive coupling of the cytoskeleton to the extracellular domain and counteracted by cytoskeleton contraction powered by molecular motors. The forces are orchestrated in space and time by feedback signals that process the mechanical and chemical states of the cell. Our goal is to decipher the largely unknown design principles and modes of operation of this complex molecular system. We developed a number of techniques to map out from high‐resolution live cell light microscopy the structural dynamics of the actin network, the contraction, adhesion, and propulsion forces transmitted through the network, and the activation of signaling molecules implicated in the regulation of actin cytoskeleton dynamics. Computational methods are being designed to integrate this data in a global model of the coupled regulatory and mechanical pathways mediating morphogenic events like cell protrusion. A corner stone of the framework is the concept of exploiting constitutive random fluctuations of pathway component activities observed over many experiments to infer from the similarity of fluctuations within and between cells the hierarchical relationships between pathway components.