Tuning cell shape change with contractile ratchets
1Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Throughout the lifespan of an organism, shape changes are necessary for cells to carry out their essential functions. Nowhere is this more dramatic than embryonic development and gastrulation, when cell shape changes drive large-scale rearrangements in tissue architecture to establish the body plan of the organism. A longstanding question for both cell and developmental biologists has been how are forces generated to change cell shape? Recent studies in both cell culture and developing embryos have combined live imaging, computational analysis, genetics, and biophysics to identify ratchet-like behaviors in actomyosin networks that operate to incrementally change cell shape, drive cell movement, and deform tissues. Our analysis of several cell shape changes leads us to propose four regulatory modules associated with ratchet-like deformations that are tuned to generate diverse cell behaviors, coordinating cell shape change across a tissue.
Related Concept Videos
The Contractile Ring
A small GTPase, RhoA, controls the function and assembly of the contractile ring. RhoA belongs to the Ras superfamily of proteins. The activation of formins by RhoA promotes...
The Contractile Ring
A small GTPase, RhoA, controls the function and assembly of the contractile ring. RhoA belongs to the Ras superfamily of proteins. The activation of formins by RhoA promotes...
Cell Motility through Blebbing
Blebbing Through the Matrix
In multicellular...
Tension Response at Adherens Junctions
α-Catenin as a Mechanosensory Protein
The α-catenin of adherens junctions is an allosteric protein with three VH (vinculin homology) domains...
The Role of Actin and Myosin in Non-muscle Cells
Cell-matrix's Response to Mechanical Forces
Anchoring junctions mechanically attach a cell to the...


