Lamellipodia articles from across Nature Portfolio

Cell movements are achieved by the spatio-temporal coordination of local membrane protrusions and retractions. Here, the authors identify a mechanism by which these protrusion and retraction events are coupled and how this affects the directionality of cell movements.

The WAVE regulatory complex activates Arp2/3 at the cell cortex and in membrane protrusions to generate persistent cell migration. Here authors show that PPP2R1A, a scaffold subunit of protein phosphatase 2, associates with an alternative form of the WAVE complex where WAVE, the subunit that activates Arp2/3, is replaced by NHSL1.

Actin cytoskeleton underlies key cellular processes, such as membrane dynamics and cell migration. Despite years of research, how cells regulate actin filament assembly and disassembly to establish dynamic actin structures that fulfil these functions remains an exciting area of study.

Calcium serves as an important second messenger in signal transduction to the actin cytoskeleton. Here, we identify EFhD2/Swip-1 as a calcium-dependent actin cross-linker promoting rapid reorganization of actin networks in epithelial wound closure.

Neural crest cells switch from expressing E-cadherin to expressing N-cadherin to undergo contact inhibition of locomotion.

Describes the visualization of ABL1 at the leading edge of lamellipodia.