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Cooperative symmetry-breaking by actin polymerization in a model for cell motility

Nature Cell Biology volume 1, pages 493–499 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Polymerizing networks of actin filaments are capable of exerting significant mechanical forces, used by eukaryotic cells and their prokaryotic pathogens to change shape or to move. Here we show that small beads coated uniformly with a protein that catalyses actin polymerization are initially surrounded by symmetrical clouds of actin filaments. This symmetry is broken spontaneously, after which the beads undergo directional motion. We have developed a stochastic theory, in which each actin filament is modelled as an elastic brownian ratchet, that quantitatively accounts for the observed emergent symmetry-breaking behaviour. Symmetry-breaking can only occur for polymers that have a significant subunit off-rate, such as the biopolymers actin and tubulin.

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Figure 1: Symmetry-breaking in a cloud of actin filaments.
Figure 2: Description of the multifilament stochastic model.
Figure 3: Examples of bead trajectories calcuated using the stochastic model.
Figure 5
Figure 4: Time-dependent subdiffusive and superdiffusive motion.
Figure 6: Cooperativity between filaments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. Cameron for providing purified ActA–His protein for the experiment shown in Fig. 1, and K. Lustig, J. Robbins, K. Jung, L. Cameron, S. McCallum and P. Giardini for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the NIH (AI36929) and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to J.A.T., and from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Resarch (NWO) to A.v.O.

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.A.T.

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Author notes

  1. Julie A. Theriot

    Present address: Department of Biochemistry and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

  2. Alexander van Oudenaarden

    Present address: Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139, USA

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Alexander van Oudenaarden

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  1. Alexander van Oudenaarden
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  2. Julie A. Theriot
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Correspondence to Julie A. Theriot.

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van Oudenaarden, A., Theriot, J. Cooperative symmetry-breaking by actin polymerization in a model for cell motility. Nat Cell Biol 1, 493–499 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/70281

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