Design rules for adhesion-driven synthetic cell motility on dynamic membranes.

ABSTRACT: Cell motility is a fundamental process involved in many complex cellular events and the development of synthetic cells that mimic cell motility enables us to understand the composite mechanisms underlying it. Here, we use giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) and supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) as simplified models to investigate how the surface density of ligands and their lateral mobility influences adhesion-dependent cell motility. In particular, we use the photoswitchable interactions between the proteins iLID (improved light-inducible dimer) and nano (wild-type SspB) to induce light-responsive adhesions of the GUVs on the SLBs and systematically tune adhesion properties by varying receptor and ligand densities, and assess their effects on the reversibility and dynamics of adhesion. We fin

SUBMITTER: Di Iorio D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12378535 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature