scholarly journals Cluster and conquer: The morphodynamics of invasion of a compliant substrate by active rods

Soft Matter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imaran Mohammad ◽  
Prabhakar Ranganathan ◽  
Raghunath Chelakkot ◽  
Mandar M Inamdar

The colonisation of a soft passive material by motile cells such as bacteria is common in biology. The resulting colonies of the invading cells are often observed to exhibit intricate...

Author(s):  
J. R. Kuhn ◽  
M. Poenie

Cell shape and movement are controlled by elements of the cytoskeleton including actin filaments an microtubules. Unfortunately, it is difficult to visualize the cytoskeleton in living cells and hence follow it dynamics. Immunofluorescence and ultrastructural studies of fixed cells while providing clear images of the cytoskeleton, give only a static picture of this dynamic structure. Microinjection of fluorescently Is beled cytoskeletal proteins has proved useful as a way to follow some cytoskeletal events, but long terry studies are generally limited by the bleaching of fluorophores and presence of unassembled monomers.Polarization microscopy has the potential for visualizing the cytoskeleton. Although at present, it ha mainly been used for visualizing the mitotic spindle. Polarization microscopy is attractive in that it pro vides a way to selectively image structures such as cytoskeletal filaments that are birefringent. By combing ing standard polarization microscopy with video enhancement techniques it has been possible to image single filaments. In this case, however, filament intensity depends on the orientation of the polarizer and analyzer with respect to the specimen.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Feng Li ◽  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Yulei Zhang ◽  
Qingsheng Lian ◽  
Caiying Qin ◽  
...  

Natural astaxanthin helps reduce the negative effects caused by oxidative stress and other related factors, thereby minimizing oxidative damage. Therefore, it has considerable potential and broad application prospects in human health and animal nutrition. Haematococcus pluvialis is considered to be the most promising cell factory for the production of natural astaxanthin. Previous studies have confirmed that nonmotile cells of H. pluvialis are more tolerant to high intensity of light than motile cells. Cultivating nonmotile cells as the dominant cell type in the red stage can significantly increase the overall astaxanthin productivity. However, we know very little about how to induce nonmotile cell formation. In this work, we first investigated the effect of phosphorus deficiency on the formation of nonmotile cells of H. pluvialis, and then investigated the effect of NaCl on the formation of nonmotile cells under the conditions of phosphorus deficiency. The results showed that, after three days of treatment with 0.1% NaCl under phosphorus deficiency, more than 80% of motile cells had been transformed into nonmotile cells. The work provides the most efficient method for the cultivation of H. pluvialis nonmotile cells so far, and it significantly improves the production of H. pluvialis astaxanthin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph d’Alessandro ◽  
Alex Barbier--Chebbah ◽  
Victor Cellerin ◽  
Olivier Benichou ◽  
René Marc Mège ◽  
...  

AbstractLiving cells actively migrate in their environment to perform key biological functions—from unicellular organisms looking for food to single cells such as fibroblasts, leukocytes or cancer cells that can shape, patrol or invade tissues. Cell migration results from complex intracellular processes that enable cell self-propulsion, and has been shown to also integrate various chemical or physical extracellular signals. While it is established that cells can modify their environment by depositing biochemical signals or mechanically remodelling the extracellular matrix, the impact of such self-induced environmental perturbations on cell trajectories at various scales remains unexplored. Here, we show that cells can retrieve their path: by confining motile cells on 1D and 2D micropatterned surfaces, we demonstrate that they leave long-lived physicochemical footprints along their way, which determine their future path. On this basis, we argue that cell trajectories belong to the general class of self-interacting random walks, and show that self-interactions can rule large scale exploration by inducing long-lived ageing, subdiffusion and anomalous first-passage statistics. Altogether, our joint experimental and theoretical approach points to a generic coupling between motile cells and their environment, which endows cells with a spatial memory of their path and can dramatically change their space exploration.


1982 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 402-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
J R Couchman ◽  
D A Rees ◽  
M R Green ◽  
C G Smith

Fibronectin (FN), which is already known to be a natural factor for fibroblast spreading on substrata, has now been shown to be essential for two distinct types of adhesion with different biological functions in chick heart fibroblasts, namely adhesion directed toward locomotion and toward stationary anchorage for growth. Manipulation of culture conditions and the use of antisera of differing specificities has demonstrated that both exogenous and cell-derived FN are important in each process. The organization of the fibronectin-containing matrix differs between the two states. Immunoelectron microscopy with a colloidal gold marker reveals the presence of small membrane-associated plaques of fibronectin in motile cells with associated submembranous specialization. A fibrillar matrix containing fibronectin is dominant in nonmotile, growing fibroblasts. The development of focal adhesions for stationary anchorage can be dramatically enhanced by addition of cell-derived FN at an appropriate stage, and this promotes entry into the growth cycle. New macromolecular synthesis in addition to FN is necessary for focal adhesion development but not for locomotion.


2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (5) ◽  
pp. 1003-1012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie C. Yvon ◽  
Patricia Wadsworth

Photoactivation and photobleaching of fluorescence were used to determine the mechanism by which microtubules (MTs) are remodeled in PtK2 cells during fibroblast-like motility in response to hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). The data show that MTs are transported during cell motility in an actomyosin-dependent manner, and that the direction of transport depends on the dominant force in the region examined. MTs in the leading lamella move rearward relative to the substrate, as has been reported in newt cells (Waterman-Storer, C.M., and E.D. Salmon. 1997. J. Cell Biol. 139:417–434), whereas MTs in the cell body and in the retraction tail move forward, in the direction of cell locomotion. In the transition zone between the peripheral lamella and the cell body, a subset of MTs remains stationary with respect to the substrate, whereas neighboring MTs are transported either forward, with the cell body, or rearward, with actomyosin retrograde flow. In addition to transport, the photoactivated region frequently broadens, indicating that individual marked MTs are moved either at different rates or in different directions. Mark broadening is also observed in nonmotile cells, indicating that this aspect of transport is independent of cell locomotion. Quantitative measurements of the dissipation of photoactivated fluorescence show that, compared with MTs in control nonmotile cells, MT turnover is increased twofold in the lamella of HGF-treated cells but unchanged in the retraction tail, demonstrating that microtubule turnover is regionally regulated.


2002 ◽  
Vol 243 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhicheng Zhang ◽  
Shaoyan Yang ◽  
Fuqiang Zhang ◽  
Dabing Li ◽  
Yonghai Chen ◽  
...  

2003 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 625-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Masini d'Avila-Levy ◽  
Rodrigo F Souza ◽  
Rosana C Gomes ◽  
Alane B Vermelho ◽  
Marta H Branquinha

Actively motile cells from a cured strain of Crithidia deanei released proteins in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). The molecular mass of the released polypeptides, which included some proteinases, ranged from 19 to 116 kDa. One of the major protein bands was purified to homogeneity by a combination of anion-exchange and gel filtration chromatographs. The apparent molecular mass of this protein was estimated to be 62 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate – polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE). The incorporation of gelatin into SDS–PAGE showed that the purified protein presented proteolytic activity in a position corresponding to a molecular mass of 60 kDa. The enzyme was optimally active at 37 °C and pH 6.0 and showed 25% of residual activity at 28 °C for 30 min. The proteinase was inhibited by 1,10-phenanthroline and EDTA, showing that it belonged to the metalloproteinase class. A polyclonal antibody to the leishmanial gp63 reacted strongly with the released C. deanei protease. After Triton X-114 extraction, an enzyme similar to the purified metalloproteinase was detected in aqueous and detergent-rich phases. The detection of an extracellular metalloproteinase produced by C. deanei and some other Crithidia species suggests a potential role of this released enzyme in substrate degradation that may be relevant to the survival of trypanosomatids in the host.Key words: endosymbiont, trypanosomatid, extracellular, proteinase.


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