Dendrite tapering actuates a self-organizing signaling circuit for stochastic filopodia initiation in neurons.

ABSTRACT: How signaling units spontaneously arise from a noisy cellular background is not well understood. Here, we show that stochastic membrane deformations can nucleate exploratory dendritic filopodia, dynamic actin-rich structures used by neurons to sample its surroundings for compatible transcellular contacts. A theoretical analysis demonstrates that corecruitment of positive and negative curvature-sensitive proteins to deformed membranes minimizes the free energy of the system, allowing the formation of long-lived curved membrane sections from stochastic membrane fluctuations. Quantitative experiments show that once recruited, curvature-sensitive proteins form a signaling circuit composed of interlinked positive and negative actin-regulatory feedback loops. As the positive but not the negative

SUBMITTER: Mancinelli G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8639351 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature