How blebs and pseudopods cooperate during chemotaxis.

ABSTRACT: Two motors can drive extension of the leading edge of motile cells: actin polymerization and myosin-driven contraction of the cortex, producing fluid pressure and the formation of blebs. Dictyostelium cells can move with both blebs and actin-driven pseudopods at the same time, and blebs, like pseudopods, can be orientated by chemotactic gradients. Here we ask how bleb sites are selected and how the two forms of projection cooperate. We show that membrane curvature is an important, yet overlooked, factor. Dictyostelium cells were observed moving under agarose, which efficiently induces blebbing, and the dynamics of membrane deformations were analyzed. Blebs preferentially originate from negatively curved regions, generated on the flanks of either extending pseudopods or blebs themselves. Th

SUBMITTER: Tyson RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4136620 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature