...Melissa A. Quintanilla; John A. Hammer; Jordan R. Beach ABSTRACT Non-muscle myosin 2 (NM2) motors are the major contractile machines in most cell types. Unsurprisingly, these ubiquitously expressed actin-based motors power a plethora of subcellular, cellular and multicellular processes...

...Imge Ozugergin; Karina Mastronardi; Chris Law; Alisa Piekny ABSTRACT Cytokinesis occurs at the end of mitosis as a result of the ingression of a contractile ring that cleaves the daughter cells. The core machinery regulating this crucial process is conserved among metazoans. Multiple pathways...

...-mediated junctional contractility. We found that active RhoA levels were stimulated by p114 RhoGEF (also known as ARHGEF18) at the junctions between migrating MCF-7 monolayers, and this was accompanied by increased levels of actomyosin and mechanical tension. Applying a strategy to restore active RhoA...

... an overview of the morphology and structure of pericytes, we describe their interactions with both the basement membrane and endothelial cells. We then turn our attention to biophysical considerations, and describe contractile forces generated by pericytes, mechanical forces exerted on pericytes, and pericyte...

... not substantively alter the balance of epithelial and mesenchymal genes. However, we identified a transcriptional network that led to upregulated RhoA signalling and cortical contractility in cells expressing Snail 6SA . Enhanced contractility was necessary, but not sufficient, to drive extrusion, suggesting...

... of actomyosin-based contractility. We propose that these newly identified features are instrumental for the ability of podosomes to generate protrusion forces and to mechanically probe their environment. Furthermore, these new results point to an increasing complexity of podosome architecture and have led...

.... For example, how does a disordered cytoskeletal network transform into a coherent ring? What are the long-distance effects of localized contractility? Here, we provide a general introduction to ‘modeling for biologists’, and review how agent-based modeling and continuum mechanics modeling have helped...

... cell force . Nat. Commun.   8 , 15014 . 10.1038/ncomms15014 Charras , G. T. , Hu , C.-K. , Coughlin , M. and Mitchison , T. J. ( 2006 ). Reassembly of contractile actin cortex in cell blebs . J. Cell Biol.   175 , 477 - 490 . 10.1083/jcb.200602085 Charras , G...

... binding. In polarized cells, ACTN1 was found to be enriched at the tight junction where it acts as a primary effector of EFA6A for normal luminogenesis. Both proteins are essential for the lumen extension and enlargement, where they mediate their effect by regulating the cortical acto-myosin contractility...

...://www.biologists.com/user-licence-1-1/ Summary: Engineered 3D cultures of cells have mainly focused on epithelial tissues. In this Commentary, advances in engineered microtissue systems to model fibrous tissues under mechanical load are discussed. 3D model Microtissue Contractility Extracellular...

... molecularly uncoupled p120's cadherin-stabilizing and RhoA-suppressing activites. Unexpectedly, removing p120's Rho-suppressing activity dramatically disrupted the integrity of the apical surface, irrespective of E-cadherin stability. The physical defect was tracked to excessive actomyosin contractility along...

...Ronen Zaidel-Bar; Guo Zhenhuan; Chen Luxenburg ABSTRACT Actomyosin contractility is a highly regulated process that affects many fundamental biological processes in each and every cell in our body. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and the accompanying poster, we mined the literature...

... into the role of FHOD1 in the dynamic processes that build contractile actin structures in cells. Interestingly, FHOD1 was preferentially associated with actin structures that have anti-parallel orientation, such as ventral stress fibers and transverse arcs. By contrast, FHOD1 was largely absent from dorsal...

... Bischofs   I. B. , Klein   F. , Lehnert   D. , Bastmeyer   M. , Schwarz   U. S. ( 2008 ). Filamentous network mechanics and active contractility determine cell and tissue shape.   Biophys. J.   95 , 3488 – 3496 . 10.1529/biophysj.108.134296 Bischofs   I. B. , Schmidt   S. S...

... undergoes slower retrograde flow than the actin that is present in 2D lamellipodia. These data suggest an increase in mechanical coupling between adhesions and protrusive machinery. Experimental reduction of contractility resulted in the loss of 1D adhesion structure and stability, with scattered small...

... myosin contractility and F-actin polymerization. Furthermore, we find that the non-canonical Wnt-signaling pathway permissively regulates levels of punctuated actin contractions. Overexpression of Xfz7 (Fzd7) can induce early maturation of actin contractions in mesoderm and produce mesoderm-like actin...

... ROCK, MLCK and myosin ATPase II activity. The regulation of intercellular adhesion strength by integrin stimulation required activation of Src family kinases, ROCK and actomyosin contractility. These findings highlight the importance and mechanisms of molecular crosstalk between cadherins and integrins...

... and reduced contractile function in skeletal muscle . J. Cell Biol. 173 , 905 - 916 . Capetanaki Y. , Bloch R. J. , Kouloumenta A. , Mavroidis M. , Psarras S. ( 2007 ). Muscle intermediate filaments and their links to membranes and membranous organelles . Exp. Cell Res...

... that promote rapid actin dynamics are also expressed in striated muscles. We show that a subset of actin filaments in cardiomyocyte sarcomeres displays rapid turnover. Importantly, we found that turnover of these filaments depends on contractility of the cardiomyocytes. Studies using an actin-polymerization...

...Stéphanie Pellegrin; Harry Mellor Animal cell movement is effected through a combination of protrusive and contractile events. Non-muscle cells contain stress fibres – bundles of actomyosin that are the major mediators of cell contraction and that can be compared to the highly organised actomyosin...