Nature Cell Biology
7, 947 - 953 (2005)
Published online: 18 September 2005; | doi:10.1038/ncb1307
The extracellular matrix guides the orientation of the cell division axisManuel Théry1, Victor Racine2, Anne Pépin3, Matthieu Piel1, Yong Chen3, Jean-Baptiste Sibarita2
& Michel Bornens11
Biologie du cycle cellulaire et de la motilité, UMR144, CNRS, Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France. 2
Centre d'imagerie, UMR144, CNRS, Institut Curie, 26 rue d'Ulm 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France. 3
Groupe nanotechnologie et dispositifs microfluidiques, UPR20, CNRS, Laboratoire Photonique et Nanostructures, Route de Nozay, 91460 Marcoussis, France.
Correspondence should be addressed to Michel Bornens mbornens@curie.fr The cell division axis determines the future positions of daughter cells and is therefore critical for cell fate. The positioning of the division axis has been mostly studied in systems such as embryos or yeasts, in which cell shape is well defined1,
2. In these cases, cell shape anisotropy and cell polarity affect spindle orientation3,
4,
5. It remains unclear whether cell geometry or cortical cues are determinants for spindle orientation in mammalian cultured cells6,
7. The cell environment is composed of an extracellular matrix (ECM), which is connected to the intracellular actin cytoskeleton via transmembrane proteins8. We used micro-contact printing to control the spatial distribution of the ECM on the substrate9 and demonstrated that it has a role in determining the orientation of the division axis of HeLa cells. On the basis of our analysis of the average distributions of actin-binding proteins in interphase and mitosis, we propose that the ECM controls the location of actin dynamics at the membrane, and thus the segregation of cortical components in interphase. This segregation is further maintained on the cortex of mitotic cells and used for spindle orientation.
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