Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Physics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Physics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Biophys J. 2022 Jun 21;121(12):2436-2448. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.05.014. Epub 2022 May 21.
Actin is one of the key structural components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton that regulates cellular architecture and mechanical properties. Dynamic regulation of actin filament length and organization is essential for the control of many physiological processes including cell adhesion, motility and division. While previous studies have mostly focused on the mechanisms controlling the length of single actin filaments, it remains poorly understood how distinct actin filament populations in cells maintain different lengths using the same set of molecular building blocks. Here, we develop a theoretical model for the length regulation of multiple actin filaments by nucleation and growth-rate modulation by actin-binding proteins in a limiting pool of monomers. We first show that spontaneous nucleation of actin filaments naturally leads to heterogeneities in filament length distribution. We then investigate the effects of filament growth inhibition by capping proteins and growth promotion by formin proteins on filament length distribution. We find that filament length heterogeneity can be increased by growth inhibition, whereas growth promoters do not significantly affect length heterogeneity. Interestingly, a competition between filament growth inhibitors and growth promoters can give rise to bimodal filament length distribution as well as a highly heterogeneous length distribution with large statistical dispersion. We quantitatively predict how heterogeneity in actin filament length can be modulated by tuning filamentous actin nucleation and growth rates in order to create distinct filament subpopulations with different lengths.
肌动蛋白是真核细胞骨架的关键结构成分之一,调节细胞结构和机械特性。肌动蛋白丝长度和组织的动态调节对于控制许多生理过程至关重要,包括细胞黏附、运动和分裂。虽然以前的研究主要集中在控制单根肌动蛋白丝长度的机制上,但对于细胞中如何使用相同的分子构建块来维持不同长度的不同肌动蛋白丝群体,人们仍然知之甚少。在这里,我们开发了一个理论模型,用于在单体有限池中的肌动蛋白结合蛋白通过成核和生长速率调节来调节多条肌动蛋白丝的长度。我们首先表明,肌动蛋白丝的自发成核自然会导致丝长分布的不均匀性。然后,我们研究了加帽蛋白对丝生长的抑制和形成蛋白对丝生长的促进对丝长分布的影响。我们发现,生长抑制可以增加丝长异质性,而生长促进剂对丝长异质性没有显著影响。有趣的是,丝生长抑制剂和生长促进剂之间的竞争可以导致双峰丝长分布以及具有大统计离散度的高度不均匀的丝长分布。我们定量预测了如何通过调节丝状肌动蛋白的成核和生长速率来调节肌动蛋白丝长度的异质性,以便创建具有不同长度的不同肌动蛋白丝亚群。
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