|
||
Department of Biology, 607 Fordham Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3280
We have discovered several novel features
exhibited by microtubules (MTs) in migrating newt
lung epithelial cells by time-lapse imaging of fluorescently labeled, microinjected tubulin. These cells exhibit leading edge ruffling and retrograde flow in the lamella and lamellipodia. The plus ends of lamella MTs
persist in growth perpendicular to the leading edge until they reach the base of the lamellipodium, where they
oscillate between short phases of growth and shortening. Occasionally "pioneering" MTs grow into the
lamellipodium, where microtubule bending and reorientation parallel to the leading edge is associated with
retrograde flow. MTs parallel to the leading edge exhibit significantly different dynamics from MTs perpendicular to the cell edge. Both parallel MTs and photoactivated fluorescent marks on perpendicular MTs move
rearward at the 0.4 µm/min rate of retrograde flow in
the lamella. MT rearward transport persists when MT
dynamic instability is inhibited by 100-nM nocodazole
but is blocked by inhibition of actomyosin by cytochalasin D or 2,3-butanedione-2-monoxime. Rearward flow
appears to cause MT buckling and breaking in the lamella. 80% of free minus ends produced by breakage
are stable; the others shorten and pause, leading to MT
treadmilling. Free minus ends of unknown origin also
depolymerize into the field of view at the lamella. Analysis of MT dynamics at the centrosome shows that
these minus ends do not arise by centrosomal ejection and that ~80% of the MTs in the lamella are not centrosome bound. We propose that actomyosin-based retrograde flow of MTs causes MT breakage, forming
quasi-stable noncentrosomal MTs whose turnover is
regulated primarily at their minus ends.
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|