A mechanical-biochemical feedback loop regulates remodeling in the actin cytoskeleton.

ABSTRACT: Cytoskeletal actin assemblies transmit mechanical stresses that molecular sensors transduce into biochemical signals to trigger cytoskeletal remodeling and other downstream events. How mechanical and biochemical signaling cooperate to orchestrate complex remodeling tasks has not been elucidated. Here, we studied remodeling of contractile actomyosin stress fibers. When fibers spontaneously fractured, they recoiled and disassembled actin synchronously. The disassembly rate was accelerated more than twofold above the resting value, but only when contraction increased the actin density to a threshold value following a time delay. A mathematical model explained this as originating in the increased overlap of actin filaments produced by myosin II-driven contraction. Above a threshold overlap, th

SUBMITTER: Stachowiak MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4267361 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature