Affiliation:
1. Biophysics Program, Stanford University School of Medicine
2. Department of Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington
Abstract
Animal cell migration is predominantly driven by the coordinated, yet stochastic, polymerization of thousands of nanometer-scale actin filaments across micron-scale cell leading edges. It remains unclear how such inherently noisy processes generate robust cellular behavior. We employed high-speed imaging of migrating neutrophil-like HL-60 cells to explore the fine-scale shape fluctuations that emerge and relax throughout the process of leading edge maintenance. We then developed a minimal stochastic model of the leading edge that reproduces this stable relaxation behavior. Remarkably, we find lamellipodial stability naturally emerges from the interplay between branched actin network growth and leading edge shape – with no additional feedback required – based on a synergy between membrane-proximal branching and lateral spreading of filaments. These results thus demonstrate a novel biological noise-suppression mechanism based entirely on system geometry. Furthermore, our model suggests that the Arp2/3-mediated ~70–80° branching angle optimally smooths lamellipodial shape, addressing its long-mysterious conservation from protists to mammals.
Funder
National Science Foundation
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Washington Research Foundation
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Subject
General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience
Cited by
12 articles.
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