Quantitative analysis of actin turnover in Listeria comet tails: evidence for catastrophic filament turnover.

ABSTRACT: Rapid assembly and disassembly (turnover) of actin filaments in cytoplasm drives cell motility and shape remodeling. While many biochemical processes that facilitate filament turnover are understood in isolation, it remains unclear how they work together to promote filament turnover in cells. Here, we studied cellular mechanisms of actin filament turnover by combining quantitative microscopy with mathematical modeling. Using live cell imaging, we found that actin polymer mass decay in Listeria comet tails is very well fit by a simple exponential. By analyzing candidate filament turnover pathways using stochastic modeling, we found that exponential polymer mass decay is consistent with either slow treadmilling, slow Arp2/3-dissociation, or catastrophic bursts of disassembly, but is inconsis

SUBMITTER: Kueh HY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3042591 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature