Cantat Alice, Colin Alexandra
Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble, Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire & Végétale, CytoMorpho Lab, University of Grenoble-Alpes, CEA, CNRS, INRA, Grenoble, France.
Biochem J. 2025 May 23;482(11):691-708. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20253044.
Actin, a ubiquitous protein essential for numerous cellular functions, is found in all eukaryotes. Despite extensive research across molecular to organismal scales, fundamental questions persist regarding the regulation of dynamic actin architectures, their interaction with membranes, and their mechanical properties. Characterizing the factors governing these processes presents significant challenges. This review emphasizes the value of simplified, reconstituted systems in addressing these unresolved questions. We particularly highlight the critical importance of macroscopic, network-level reconstitutions for tackling these issues. We first describe the available methodological toolkit for (1) controlling actin polymerization spatiotemporally and (2) confining actin networks within closed environments to examine boundary constraint effects or the impact of limited component availability on network properties. We then review studies employing these reconstituted systems to investigate how actin architecture influences various processes and how dynamic actin structures are established and maintained. Further, we discuss how network-level reconstitutions have enhanced our understanding of actin networks' mechanical properties and their interaction with the lipid membranes. Throughout the review, we discuss future perspectives for each topic and explain how macroscale reconstitutions can provide deeper mechanistic insights into actin-related processes.
肌动蛋白是一种对众多细胞功能至关重要的普遍存在的蛋白质，存在于所有真核生物中。尽管在从分子到生物体尺度上进行了广泛研究，但关于动态肌动蛋白结构的调控、它们与膜的相互作用以及它们的机械性能等基本问题仍然存在。表征控制这些过程的因素面临重大挑战。本综述强调了简化的、重构系统在解决这些未解决问题方面的价值。我们特别强调宏观的、网络水平的重构对于解决这些问题的至关重要性。我们首先描述了用于（1）时空控制肌动蛋白聚合以及（2）将肌动蛋白网络限制在封闭环境中以检查边界约束效应或有限成分可用性对网络性质影响的可用方法工具包。然后，我们回顾了利用这些重构系统来研究肌动蛋白结构如何影响各种过程以及动态肌动蛋白结构是如何建立和维持的研究。此外，我们讨论了网络水平的重构如何增强了我们对肌动蛋白网络机械性能及其与脂质膜相互作用的理解。在整个综述中，我们讨论了每个主题的未来前景，并解释了宏观尺度的重构如何能够为肌动蛋白相关过程提供更深入的机制见解。
