Lamin A/C Deficiency Enables Increased Myosin2 Bipolar Filament Ensembles Which Promote Divergent Actomyosin Network Anomalies Through Self Organization

Nuclear envelope proteins influence cell cytoarchitecure by poorly understood mechanisms. Here we show that siRNA-mediated silencing of lamin A/C (LMNA) promotes contrasting stress fiber assembly and disassembly in individual cells and within cell populations. We show that LMNA deficient cells have elevated myosin-II bipolar filament accumulations, irregular formation of actin comet tails and podosome-like adhesions, increased steady state nuclear localization of the mechanosensitive transcription factors MKL1 and YAP, and induced expression of some MKL1/Serum Response Factor (SRF) regulated genes such as that encoding myosin-IIA (MYH9). Our studies utilizing live cell imaging and pharmacological inhibition of myosin-II, support a mechanism of deregulated myosin-II self-organizing activity at the nexus of divergent actin cytoskeletal aberrations resultant from LMNA loss. In light of our results, we propose a model of how the nucleus, via linkage to the cytoplasmic actomyosin network, may act to control myosin-II contractile behavior through both mechanical and transcriptional feedback mechanisms.

Dynamic aspects of the contractile system in Physarum plasmodium. III. Cyclic contraction-relaxation of the plasmodial fragment in accordance with the generation-degeneration of cytoplasmic actomyosin fibrils.

Plasmodial fragments of Physarum polycephalum, excised from anterior regions of a thin-spread plasmodium, contracted-relaxed cyclicly with a period of 3-5 min. The area of the fragments decreased approximately 10% during contraction. In most cases, there was little endoplasmic streaming which indicates that contractions were synchronized throughout the fragment. By both polarized light and fluorescence microscopy, the organization and distribution of the cytoplasmic actomyosin fibrils in the fragments changed in synchrony with the contraction cycle. The fibrils formed during the contraction phase, and finally became a highly organized framework consisting of a three-dimensional network of numerous fibrils with many converging points (the nodes). During relaxation, the fibrils degenerated and disappeared almost completely, though some very weak fibrils remained near the nodes and the periphery. The results obtained by fluorometry of the fragments, stained with rhodamine-phalloidin, suggested that the G-F transformation of actin is not the main underlying process of the fibrillar formation.

Reactivation of cytoplasmic actomyosin in Physarum plasmodia extracted with glycerol and dimethylsulphoxide

Thin-spread plasmodia of Physarum were subjected to extraction procedures using 50% glycerol or DMSO (dimethylsulphoxide) followed by labelling of actin with fluorescent phallotoxins. During the reactivation of the actomyosin system by 2 mM-MgATP fluorescent actin fibres contract isotonically, which results in numerous fluorescent ‘contraction beads’. After short-term extraction 1 mM-Ca2+ has an inhibitory effect on the reactivation. This calcium sensitivity is abolished after long-term extraction with glycerol. Calcium at 10 mM irreversibly inhibits reactivation, irrespective of the duration of extraction. The inhibitory effect of 10 mM-calcium is prevented by phallotoxin labelling prior to incubation in Ca2+. The DMSO model shows an improvement in structural preservation when compared with the glycerol models. However, reactivation is inhibited by prolonged treatment with DMSO.

Immunocytochemistry of the acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum. I. Preparation, morphology, and reliability of results concerning cytoplasmic actomyosin patterns in sandwiched plasmodia

Small phaneroplasmodia of Physarum polycephalum migrate, under sandwich conditions between two agar sheets and a membrane of cellophane, as thin protoplasmic sheets. This method suitably simulates the situation in the natural habitat of acellular slime moulds; i.e. the narrow clefts of the forest soil. The highly differentiated system of cytoplasmic fibrils displayed under these conditions survives both long-term extraction with glycerol and fixation with methanol, procedures that remove the strong inherent autofluorescence, thus allowing the use of immunocytochemical studies. The complicated fibrillar system of sandwiched plasmodia consists of: (1) a membrane-associated cortical filament layer in the anterior region; (2) a more or less regular polygonal fibrillar network in the intermediate region; and (3) a helically twisted fibrillar system encircling endoplasmic pathways as well as isolated strands in the posterior region. So far, three different cytoskeletal proteins have been identified immunocytochemically as constituents of the fibrillar structures: actin, myosin and AM-protein (fragmin). No positive identification of alpha-actinin, filamin and tropomyosin was obtained using antibodies against vertebrate proteins. Electron microscopy of glycerol-extracted specimens treated with antibodies against actin and myosin revealed that the 6 nm filaments consist of actin, whereas the electron-dense material between single actin filaments appears to be myosin. The AM-protein modulating the polymer status of actin is located in all fibrillar structures.