Dynamic localization of the actin-bundling protein cortexillin I during cell migration

Cortexillins are actin-bundling proteins that play a critical role in regulating cell morphology and actin cytoskeleton reorganization in Dictyostelium. Here, we investigated dynamic subcellular localization of cortexillin I in chemotaxing Dictyostelium cells. Most of the cortexillin I was enriched on the lateral sides of moving cells. Upon chemoattractant stimulation, cortexillin I was rapidly released from the cortex followed by a transient translocation to the cell cortex with a peak at ~5 s and a subsequent decrease to basal levels, indicating that localization of cor-texillin I at the cortex in chemotaxing cells is controlled by two more signaling components, one for the initial delocalization from the cortex and another for the translocation to the cortex ~5 s after chemoattractant stimulation. Loss of cortexillins leads to reduced cell polarity and an increased number of lateral pseudopodia during chemotaxis, suggesting that cortexillins play an inhibitory role in producing pseudopodia along the lateral sides of the cell. Cells lacking cortexillins displayed extended chemoattrac-tant-mediated Arp2/3 complex translocation kinetics to the cortex. Our present study provides a new insight into the function of cortexillins during reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and cell migration.