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Actin is a family of globular proteins that are highly abundant in eukaryotic cells. It makes up approximately 1-5% of total cell protein concentration. Actin monomers polymerize to form a complex network of polarized filaments, the actin cytoskeleton, that plays a crucial role in many cellular processes, including cell motility, division, endocytosis, and metastasis of cancer cells.
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Actin and myosin or actomyosin filaments also play a significant role in cells other than those involved in muscle contraction (which occurs within the sarcomere of muscle cells). The mechanism of non-muscle cell contractile bundles was first observed in Dictyostelium and Acanthamoeba. In non-muscle cells, two bundles are commonly found: stress fibers and actomyosin adherence belts. These contractile bundles are smaller and less organized than the ones found in muscle cells. They  are held...
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A migrating cell changes its shape during the cyclic events of attachment and detachment from the substratum and repositions the cell organelles correspondingly. These complex events are orchestrated by the dynamic cytoskeletal network comprising actin filaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubules. Cytoskeletal crosstalk — the direct and indirect communication between the different components — is crucial for this coordination. Direct communication involves various linker...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 19, 2025

Tuning the Contractility and Deformation Modes of Active Actin-Based Assemblies In Vitro: From Two-Dimensional Active Networks to Liquid Crystal Drops
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Tuning the Contractility and Deformation Modes of Active Actin-Based Assemblies In Vitro: From Two-Dimensional Active Networks to Liquid Crystal Drops

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Mechanical interplay between cell shape and actin cytoskeleton organization.

Koen Schakenraad1, Jeremy Ernst, Wim Pomp

  • 1Instituut-Lorentz, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. giomi@lorentz.leidenuniv.nl.

Soft Matter
|June 4, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cellular shape is determined by the actin cytoskeleton

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Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Biophysics
  • Mechanobiology

Background:

  • The spatial organization of the actin cytoskeleton influences cell shape.
  • Understanding this relationship is crucial for cell mechanics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mechanical interplay between actin cytoskeleton organization and animal cell shape.
  • To model the feedback mechanism between cell edge geometry and cytoskeleton organization.

Main Methods:

  • Analytical modeling
  • Computer simulations
  • In vitro experiments

Main Results:

  • Actin stress fiber orientation dictates cell edge geometry.
  • Cell edge shape influences cytoskeleton organization via a feedback loop.
  • The anchoring number controls this feedback mechanism.

Conclusions:

  • A model predicting cellular shape and actin cytoskeleton structure was developed.
  • The model shows good agreement with experimental data from fibroblastoid and epithelioid cells.