scholarly journals How Listeria exploits host cell actin to form its own cytoskeleton. II. Nucleation, actin filament polarity, filament assembly, and evidence for a pointed end capper.

1992 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
L G Tilney ◽  
D J DeRosier ◽  
A Weber ◽  
M S Tilney
Keyword(s):  
Host Cell ◽  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Critical Concentration ◽  
Filament Assembly ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Pointed End ◽  
Phagosomal Membrane ◽  
Simple Picture

After Listeria, a bacterium, is phagocytosed by a macrophage, it dissolves the phagosomal membrane and enters the cytoplasm. The Listeria than nucleates actin filaments from its surface. These newly assembled actin filaments show unidirectional polarity with their barbed ends associated with the surface of the Listeria. Using actin concentrations below the pointed end critical concentration we find that filament elongation must be occurring by monomers adding to the barbed ends, the ends associated with the Listerial surface. If Listeria with tails are incubated in G actin under polymerizing conditions, the Listeria is translocated away from its preformed tail by the elongation of filaments attached to the Listeria. This experiment and others tell us that in vivo filament assembly must be tightly coupled to filament capping and cross-bridging so that if one process outstrips another, chaos ensues. We also show that the actin filaments in the tail are capped on their pointed ends which inhibits further elongation and/or disassembly in vitro. From these results we suggest a simple picture of how Listeria competes effectively for host cell actin. When Listeria secretes a nucleator, the host's actin subunits polymerize into a filament. Host cell machinery terminate the assembly leaving a short filament. Listeria overcomes the host control by nucleating new filaments and thus many short filaments assemble. The newest filaments push existing ones into a growing tail. Thus the competition is between nucleation of filaments caused by Listeria and the filament terminators produced by the host.

scholarly journals Lamellipodin promotes actin assembly by clustering Ena/VASP proteins and tethering them to actin filaments

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott D Hansen ◽  
R Dyche Mullins
Keyword(s):  
Axon Guidance ◽  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Focal Adhesions ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Polymerase Activity ◽  
Actin Assembly ◽  
Filament Assembly

Enabled/Vasodilator (Ena/VASP) proteins promote actin filament assembly at multiple locations, including: leading edge membranes, focal adhesions, and the surface of intracellular pathogens. One important Ena/VASP regulator is the mig-10/Lamellipodin/RIAM family of adaptors that promote lamellipod formation in fibroblasts and drive neurite outgrowth and axon guidance in neurons. To better understand how MRL proteins promote actin network formation we studied the interactions between Lamellipodin (Lpd), actin, and VASP, both in vivo and in vitro. We find that Lpd binds directly to actin filaments and that this interaction regulates its subcellular localization and enhances its effect on VASP polymerase activity. We propose that Lpd delivers Ena/VASP proteins to growing barbed ends and increases their polymerase activity by tethering them to filaments. This interaction represents one more pathway by which growing actin filaments produce positive feedback to control localization and activity of proteins that regulate their assembly.

scholarly journals Investigations of human myosin VI targeting using optogenetically-controlled cargo loading

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander R. French ◽  
Tobin R. Sosnick ◽  
Ronald S. Rock
Keyword(s):  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Cancer Metastasis ◽  
Broad Class ◽  
Activation Mechanism ◽  
Myosin Vi ◽  
Cargo Protein ◽  
Multiple Protein ◽  
Pointed End

AbstractMyosins play countless critical roles in the cell, each requiring it to be activated at a specific location and time. To control myosin VI with this specificity, we created a novel optogenetic tool for activating myosin VI by fusing the light-sensitive Avena sativa phototropin1 LOV2 domain to a peptide from Dab2 (LOVDab), a myosin VI cargo protein. Our approach harnesses the native targeting and activation mechanism of myosin VI, allowing direct inferences on myosin VI function. LOVDab robustly recruits human full length myosin VI to various organelles in vivo and hinders peroxisome motion in a light-controllable manner. LOVDab also activates myosin VI in an in vitro gliding filament assay. Our data suggest that protein and lipid cargoes cooperate to activate myosin VI, allowing myosin VI to integrate Ca2+, lipid, and protein cargo signals in the cell to deploy in a site-specific manner.Significance StatementMyosins are a broad class of motor proteins that generate force on actin filaments and fulfill contractile, transport, and anchoring roles. Myosin VI, the only myosin to walk toward the pointed end of actin filaments, is implicated in cancer metastasis and deafness. Intriguingly, myosin VI may play both transport and anchoring roles, depending upon where it is activated in the cell. Here we develop an optogenetic tool for studying myosin VI activation with high spatial and temporal resolution. Our approach photoactivates unmodified myosin VI through its native cargo pathway, enabling investigation of motor function and activation partners with minimal perturbation. This approach allows us to detect how and where myosin VI integrates multiple protein and second messenger signals to activate.

scholarly journals Implications of treadmilling for the stability and polarity of actin and tubulin polymers in vivo.

1980 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 330-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
M W Kirschner
Keyword(s):  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Complete Suppression ◽  
Gtp Hydrolysis ◽  
Spontaneous Polymerization ◽  
Filament Assembly ◽  
Selective Stabilization ◽  
The Stability

In this report, we examine how the cell can selectively stabilize anchored filaments and suppress spontaneous filament assembly. Because microtubules and actin filaments have an organized distribution in cells, the cell must have a mechanism for suppressing spontaneous and random polymerization. Though the mechanism for suppressing spontaneous polymerization is unknown, an unusual property of these filaments has been demonstrated recently, i.e., under steady-stae conditions, in vitro actin filaments and microtubules can exhibit a flux of subunits through the polymers called "treadmilling." In vivo, however, most, if not all, of these polymers are attached at one end to specific structures and treadmilling should not occur. The function of treadmilling in vivo is, therefore, unclear at present. However, as shown here, the same physicochemical property of coupling assembly to ATP or GTP hydrolysis that leads to treadmilling in vitro can act to selectively stabilize anchored polymers in vivo. I show here that the theory of treadmilling implies that the concentration of subunits necessary for assembly of the nonanchored polymer will in general be higher than the concentration necessary for the assembly of polymers anchored with a specific polarity. This disparity in the monomer concentrations required for assembly can lead to a selective stabilization of anchored polymers and complete suppression of spontaneous polymerization at apparent equilibrium in vivo. It is possible, therefore, that the phenomenon of treadmilling is an in vitro manifestation of a mechanism designed to use ATP or GTP hydrolysis to control the spatial organization of filaments in the cell.

scholarly journals Actin filaments in yeast are unstable in the absence of capping protein or fimbrin.

1995 ◽  
Vol 131 (6) ◽  
pp. 1483-1493 ◽  
Author(s):  
T S Karpova ◽  
K Tatchell ◽  
J A Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Actin Filament ◽  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Binding Proteins ◽  
Actin Binding ◽  
Actin Binding Proteins ◽  
Capping Protein ◽  
Filament Assembly

Many actin-binding proteins affect filament assembly in vitro and localize with actin in vivo, but how their molecular actions contribute to filament assembly in vivo is not understood well. We report here that capping protein (CP) and fimbrin are both important for actin filament assembly in vivo in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, based on finding decreased actin filament assembly in CP and fimbrin mutants. We have also identified mutations in actin that enhance the CP phenotype and find that those mutants also have decreased actin filament assembly in vivo. In vitro, actin purified from some of these mutants is defective in polymerization or binding fimbrin. These findings support the conclusion that CP acts to stabilize actin filaments in vivo. This conclusion is particularly remarkable because it is the opposite of the conclusion drawn from recent studies in Dictyostelium (Hug, C., P.Y. Jay, I. Reddy, J.G. McNally, P.C. Bridgman, E.L. Elson, and J.A. Cooper. 1995. Cell. 81:591-600). In addition, we find that the unpolymerized pool of actin in yeast is very small relative to that found in higher cells, which suggests that actin filament assembly is less dynamic in yeast than higher cells.

scholarly journals Polymerization of actin. VI. The polarity of the actin filaments in the acrosomal process and how it might be determined.

1979 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 608-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
L G Tilney ◽  
N Kallenbach
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Critical Concentration ◽  
Actin Monomer ◽  
Spontaneous Nucleation ◽  
Myosin Subfragment ◽  
Acrosomal Reaction ◽  
Myosin Subfragment 1

The polarity of the actin filaments which assemble from the nucleating body or actomere of Thyone and Pisaster sperm was determined using myosin subfragment 1 decoration. The polarity was found to be unidirectional with the arrowheads pointing towards the cell center. When polymerization is induced at low temperature with concentrations of actin near the critical concentration for polymerization, elongation of filaments occurs preferentially off the apical end. If the sperm are induced to undergo the acrosomal reaction with an ionophore, the polarity of the actin filaments attached to the actomere is the same as that already described, but the filaments which polymerize parallel to, but peripheral to, those extending from the actomere are randomly polarized. These randomly polarized filaments appear to result from spontaneous nucleation. When sperm are induced to undergo the acrosomal reaction with eggs, the polarity of the actin filaments is also unidirectional with the arrowheads pointing towards the cell center. From these results we conclude: (a) that the actomere, by nucleating the polymerization of actin filaments, controls the polarity of the actin filaments in the acrosomal process, (b) that the actomere recognizes a surface of the actin monomer that is different from that surface recognized by the dense material attached to membranes, and (c) that egg myosin could not act to pull the sperm into the egg. Included is a discussion of how the observation that monomers add largely to one end of a decorated filament in vitro relates to these in vivo observations.

scholarly journals Intracellular localisation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis affects efficacy of the antibiotic pyrazinamide

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Santucci ◽  
Daniel J. Greenwood ◽  
Antony Fearns ◽  
Kai Chen ◽  
Haibo Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis ◽  
Host Cell ◽  
Combination Chemotherapy ◽  
In Vitro Activity ◽  
In Vivo Efficacy ◽  
Human Macrophages ◽  
Ion Microscopy ◽  
Intracellular Localisation

AbstractTo be effective, chemotherapy against tuberculosis (TB) must kill the intracellular population of the pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, how host cell microenvironments affect antibiotic accumulation and efficacy remains unclear. Here, we use correlative light, electron, and ion microscopy to investigate how various microenvironments within human macrophages affect the activity of pyrazinamide (PZA), a key antibiotic against TB. We show that PZA accumulates heterogeneously among individual bacteria in multiple host cell environments. Crucially, PZA accumulation and efficacy is maximal within acidified phagosomes. Bedaquiline, another antibiotic commonly used in combined TB therapy, enhances PZA accumulation via a host cell-mediated mechanism. Thus, intracellular localisation and specific microenvironments affect PZA accumulation and efficacy. Our results may explain the potent in vivo efficacy of PZA, compared to its modest in vitro activity, and its critical contribution to TB combination chemotherapy.

Cellular and immunological basis of the host-parasite relationship during infection withNeospora caninum

Parasitology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. HEMPHILL ◽  
N. VONLAUFEN ◽  
A. NAGULESWARAN
Keyword(s):  
Host Cell ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Neospora Caninum ◽  
Host Cells ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Prevention Of Infection ◽  
Parasite Relationship ◽  
Potential Applications

Neospora caninumis an apicomplexan parasite that is closely related toToxoplasma gondii, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis in humans and domestic animals. However, in contrast toT. gondii, N. caninumrepresents a major cause of abortion in cattle, pointing towards distinct differences in the biology of these two species. There are 3 distinct key features that represent potential targets for prevention of infection or intervention against disease caused byN. caninum. Firstly, tachyzoites are capable of infecting a large variety of host cellsin vitroandin vivo. Secondly, the parasite exploits its ability to respond to alterations in living conditions by converting into another stage (tachyzoite-to-bradyzoite orvice versa). Thirdly, by analogy withT. gondii, this parasite has evolved mechanisms that modulate its host cells according to its own requirements, and these must, especially in the case of the bradyzoite stage, involve mechanisms that ensure long-term survival of not only the parasite but also of the host cell. In order to elucidate the molecular and cellular bases of these important features ofN. caninum, cell culture-based approaches and laboratory animal models are being exploited. In this review, we will summarize the current achievements related to host cell and parasite cell biology, and will discuss potential applications for prevention of infection and/or disease by reviewing corresponding work performed in murine laboratory infection models and in cattle.

scholarly journals A potential role for the COOH-terminal domain in the lateral packing of type III intermediate filaments.

1991 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
P D Kouklis ◽  
T Papamarcaki ◽  
A Merdes ◽  
S D Georgatos
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Type Iii ◽  
Filament Assembly ◽  
Filament Bundles ◽  
Self Association ◽  
Specific Association ◽  
A Site ◽  
Idiotypic Antibody

To identify sites of self-association in type III intermediate filament (IF) proteins, we have taken an "anti-idiotypic antibody" approach. A mAb (anti-Ct), recognizing a similar feature near the end of the rod domain of vimentin, desmin, and peripherin (epsilon site or epsilon epitope), was characterized. Anti-idiotypic antibodies, generated by immunizing rabbits with purified anti-Ct, recognize a site (presumably "complementary" to the epsilon epitope) common among vimentin, desmin, and peripherin (beta site or beta epitope). The beta epitope is represented in a synthetic peptide (PII) modeled after the 30 COOH-terminal residues of peripherin, as seen by comparative immunoblotting assays. Consistent with the idea of an association between the epsilon and the beta site, PII binds in vitro to intact IF proteins and fragments containing the epsilon epitope, but not to IF proteins that do not react with anti-Ct. Microinjection experiments conducted in vivo and filament reconstitution assays carried out in vitro further demonstrate that "uncoupling" of this site-specific association (by competition with PII or anti-Ct) interferes with normal IF architecture, resulting in the formation of filaments and filament bundles with diameters much greater than that of the normal IFs. These thick fibers are very similar to the ones observed previously when a derivative of desmin missing 27 COOH-terminal residues was assembled in vitro (Kaufmann, E., K. Weber, and N. Geisler. 1985. J. Mol. Biol. 185:733-742). As a molecular explanation, we propose here that the epsilon and the beta sites of type III IF proteins are "complementary" and associate during filament assembly. As a result of this association, we further postulate the formation of a surface-exposed "loop" or "hairpin" structure that may sterically prevent inappropriate filament-filament aggregation and regulate filament thickness.

Parthenogenesis and cytoskeletal organization in ageing mouse eggs

Development ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-145
Author(s):  
Michelle Webb ◽  
Sarah K. Howlett ◽  
Bernard Maro
Keyword(s):  
Critical Concentration ◽  
Metaphase Plate ◽  
Meiotic Spindle ◽  
Cytoskeletal Organization ◽  
Spindle Poles ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Mouse Egg ◽  
Parthenogenetic Embryos

The cytoskeletal organization of the mouse egg changes during ageing in vivo and in vitro. The earliest change observed is the disappearance of the microfilament-rich area overlying the meiotic spindle. This is followed by the migration of the spindle towards the centre of the egg. Finally the spindle breaks down and the chromosomes are no longer organized on a metaphase plate. This spindle disruption may result from changes in the microtubule nucleating material found at the spindle poles and from an increase in the critical concentration for tubulin polymerization. It is possible to correlate the changes in the cytoskeletal organization of the egg occurring during ageing with the different types of parthenogenetic embryos obtained after ethanol activation. These observations strengthen the hypothesis that the actin-rich cortical area that overlies the meiotic spindle forms a domain to which the meiotic cleavage furrow is restricted and provides some insights into the mechanisms by which different types of parthenogenetic embryos are generated.

scholarly journals Capacity of human serum to depolymerize actin filaments

Blood ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 524-530
Author(s):  
PA Janmey ◽  
SE Lind
Keyword(s):  
Human Serum ◽  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Serum Proteins ◽  
Normal Serum ◽  
Slow Phase ◽  
Rapid Phase ◽  
Plasma Gelsolin ◽  
Preferential Formation

Human blood depolymerizes filamentous (F-)actin. The interaction of actin filaments and monomers with human serum was studied by following the kinetics and extent of the depolymerization of pyrene-labeled F- actin and by analysis of serum proteins adhering to immobilized actin monomers. In physiologic Ca2+ concentrations, the depolymerization of F- actin proceeds in two stages: a rapid phase, attributed to direct severing of filaments by plasma gelsolin, and a slow phase attributed to the binding of actin monomers to vitamin D-binding protein (DBP). Without Ca2+, only the slow phase is observed. Human serum can completely depolymerize 10 to 18 mumol/L of actin, of which approximately 5 mumol/L occurs rapidly. Depolymerization can be accounted for by the normal serum concentrations of gelsolin and DBP. Fibrin(ogen) and fibronectin, which bind actin in vitro, do not contribute to the kinetics or extent of its depolymerization. Affinity chromatography and functional assays for the presence of gelsolin-actin complexes show that addition of G-actin to serum results in preferential formation of actin-DBP complexes, but that addition of F- actin to serum produces both gelsolin-actin complexes and DBP-actin complexes. The distinctive binding of actin monomers and polymers to these two serum proteins suggests a means by which their coordinated actions are maximized in vivo, from the standpoint of depolymerizing filaments and clearing monomers from the circulation.

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