Review abstract
Nature Cell Biology 3, E124 - E129 (2001)
doi:10.1038/35074652
Coping with the inevitable: how cells repair a torn surface membrane
Paul L. McNeil1 & Mark Terasaki2
Abstract
Disruption of the cell plasma membrane is a commonplace occurrence in many mechanically challenging, biological environments. 'Resealing' is the emergency response required for cell survival. Resealing is triggered by Ca2+ entering through the disruption; this causes vesicles present in cytoplasm underlying the disruption site to fuse rapidly with one another (homotypically) and also with the adjacent plasma membrane (heterotypically/exocytotically). The large vesicular products of homotypic fusion are added as a reparative 'patch' across the disruption, when its resealing requires membrane replacement. The simultaneous activation of the local cytoskeleton supports these membrane fusion events. Resealing is clearly a complex and dynamic cell adaptation, and, as we emphasize here, may be an evolutionarily primitive one that arose shortly after the ancestral eukaryote lost its protective cell wall.
- Department of Cellular Biology and Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912, USA
- Department of Physiology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06032, USA
Correspondence to: Paul L. McNeil1 e-mail: pmcneil@mail.mcg.edu
Correspondence to: Mark Terasaki2 e-mail: terasaki@neuron.uchc.edu
