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Related Experiment Video

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Concentric Gel System to Study the Biophysical Role of Matrix Microenvironment on 3D Cell Migration

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Ordered patterns of cell shape and orientational correlation during spontaneous cell migration.

Yusuke T Maeda¹, Junya Inose, Miki Y Matsuo

¹Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. ymaeda@rockefeller.edu

|November 18, 2008

Summary

Dictyostelium cells spontaneously organize shape into ordered patterns like elongation and rotation, crucial for directed movement. This process, mediated by PI3-kinase (PI3K)/PTEN/F-actin, controls cell migration without external cues.

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Area of Science:

Cell Biology
Biophysics
Computational Biology

Background:

Eukaryotic cells exhibit spontaneous migration through coordinated shape changes and movement, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
Understanding how cells alter their morphology and integrate deformation with locomotion is essential for cell motility research.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the mechanisms governing spontaneous cell migration in Dictyostelium discoideum.
To elucidate how cells coordinate shape dynamics with movement in the absence of external stimuli.

Main Methods:

Observation of Dictyostelium cells in vegetative and starved states to analyze morphological dynamics.
Statistical dynamic analyses to identify patterns in cell shape, filamentous actin (F-actin) distribution, and cell movement.
Computational modeling to understand the coordination between cell deformation and migration.

Main Results:

Dictyostelium cells spontaneously adopt three ordered shape patterns: elongation, rotation, and oscillation.
Inactivation of PI3-kinase (PI3K) and/or PTEN disrupted these ordered patterns, impairing pseudopodial formation.
Spontaneous polarization in starved cells was achieved through asymmetric PTEN and F-actin localization, enhancing migration persistence.

Conclusions:

Dictyostelium cells utilize PI3K/PTEN/F-actin signaling to generate ordered shape patterns for spontaneous migration.
Symmetry breaking in protein localization is critical for maintaining cell polarity and directed movement.
The switching among ordered patterns ensures persistent random exploration, highlighting a novel mechanism for cell motility control.