An experimental and computational study of the effect of ActA polarity on the speed of Listeria monocytogenes actin-based motility.

ABSTRACT: Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogenic bacterium that moves within infected cells and spreads directly between cells by harnessing the cell's dendritic actin machinery. This motility is dependent on expression of a single bacterial surface protein, ActA, a constitutively active Arp2,3 activator, and has been widely studied as a biochemical and biophysical model system for actin-based motility. Dendritic actin network dynamics are important for cell processes including eukaryotic cell motility, cytokinesis, and endocytosis. Here we experimentally altered the degree of ActA polarity on a population of bacteria and made use of an ActA-RFP fusion to determine the relationship between ActA distribution and speed of bacterial motion. We found a positive linear relationship for both ActA intensit

SUBMITTER: Rafelski SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2699634 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature