903 research outputs found
Phosphoinositide signaling plays a key role in cytokinesis
To perform the vital functions of motility and division, cells must undergo dramatic shifts in cell polarity. Recent evidence suggests that polarized distributions of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate and phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate, which are clearly important for regulating cell morphology during migration, also play an important role during the final event in cell division, which is cytokinesis. Thus, there is a critical interplay between the membrane phosphoinositides and the cytoskeletal cortex that regulates the complex series of cell shape changes that accompany these two processes
Synthetic Manipulation of PIP2 Levels and PIP2-Associated Chemotactic Signaling Dissection in Dictyostelium
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Cell migration directionality and speed are independently regulated by RasG and Gβ in Dictyostelium cells in electrotaxis.
Motile cells manifest increased migration speed and directionality in gradients of stimuli, including chemoattractants, electrical potential and substratum stiffness. Here, we demonstrate that Dictyostelium cells move directionally in response to an electric field (EF) with specific acceleration/deceleration kinetics of directionality and migration speed. Detailed analyses of the migration kinetics suggest that migration speed and directionality are separately regulated by Gβ and RasG, respectively, in EF-directed cell migration. Cells lacking Gβ, which is essential for all chemotactic responses in Dictyostelium, showed EF-directed cell migration with the same increase in directionality in an EF as wild-type cells. However, these cells failed to show induction of the migration speed upon EF stimulation as much as wild-type cells. Loss of RasG, a key regulator of chemoattractant-directed cell migration, resulted in almost complete loss of directionality, but similar acceleration/deceleration kinetics of migration speed as wild-type cells. These results indicate that Gβ and RasG are required for the induction of migration speed and directionality, respectively, in response to an EF, suggesting separation of migration speed and directionality even with intact feedback loops between mechanical and signaling networks
Cellular Ability to Sense Spatial Gradients in the Presence of Multiple Competitive Ligands
Many eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells can exhibit remarkable sensing ability
under small gradient of chemical compound. In this study, we approach this
phenomenon by considering the contribution of multiple ligands to the chemical
kinetics within Michaelis-Menten model. This work was inspired by the recent
theoretical findings from Bo Hu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 048104 (2010)],
our treatment with practical binding energies and chemical potential provides
the results which are consistent with experimental observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Phosphorylation of chemoattractant receptors is not essential for chemotaxis or termination of G-protein-mediated responses
In several G-protein-coupled signaling systems, ligand-induced receptor phosphorylation by specific kinases is suggested to lead to desensitization via mechanisms including receptor/G-protein uncoupling, receptor internalization, and receptor down-regulation. We report here that elimination of phosphorylation of a chemoattractant receptor of Dictyostelium, either by site-directed substitution of the serines or by truncation of the C-terminal cytoplasmic domain, completely prevented agonist-induced loss of ligand binding but did not impair the adaptation of several receptor-mediated responses including the activation of adenylyl and guanylyl cyclases and actin polymerization, In addition, the phosphorylation deficient receptors were capable of mediating chemotaxis, aggregation, and differentiation. We propose that for chemoattractant receptors agonist-induced phosphorylation regulates surface binding activity but other phosphorylation-independent mechanisms mediate response adaptation
Ligand-induced Modification of a Surface cAMP Receptor of Dictyostelium discoideum Does Not Require Its Occupancy
Localization of Chemoattractant Receptors on Dictyostelium discoideum Cells during Aggregation and Down-regulation
cAMP chemoattractant receptors on the surface of Dictyostelium discoideum cells are visualized by means of immunocytochemistry. Receptor antigen is virtually absent from growing cells and begins to accumulate after about 6 hr of starvation, concomitant with the increase in surface cAMP binding activity. In aggregating cells, the antigen is uniformly distributed over the cell surface. Persistent cAMP stimulation, which leads to down-regulation of cAMP binding activity, induces a striking rearrangement of receptor antigen into patches or internal vesicles. A similar patching of receptor antigen is observed during tight aggregate formation, when surface cAMP binding activity decreases. These observations indicate that receptor down-regulation involves receptor agglomeration and suggest that receptor down-regulation takes place in vivo, when tight aggregates are being formed
Ligand-induced Modification of a Surface cAMP Receptor of Dictyostelium discoideum Does Not Require Its Occupancy
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