scholarly journals Forces that shape fission yeast cells

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 1819-1824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Chang
Keyword(s):  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Cell Shape ◽  
Turgor Pressure ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Animal Cells ◽  
Cellular Mechanics ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Micrometer Scale

One of the major challenges of modern cell biology is to understand how cells are assembled from nanoscale components into micrometer-scale entities with a specific size and shape. Here I describe how our quest to understand the morphogenesis of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe drove us to investigate cellular mechanics. These studies build on the view that cell shape arises from the physical properties of an elastic cell wall inflated by internal turgor pressure. Consideration of cellular mechanics provides new insights into not only mechanisms responsible for cell-shape determination and growth, but also cellular processes such as cytokinesis and endocytosis. Studies in yeast can help to illuminate approaches and mechanisms to study the mechanobiology of the cell surface in other cell types, including animal cells.

scholarly journals The organisation and functions of local Ca2+ signals

2001 ◽  
Vol 114 (12) ◽  
pp. 2213-2222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin D. Bootman ◽  
Peter Lipp ◽  
Michael J. Berridge
Keyword(s):  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Gene Transcription ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Different Cell Types ◽  
Intracellular Messenger ◽  
Sensory Mechanisms

Calcium (Ca2+) is a ubiquitous intracellular messenger, controlling a diverse range of cellular processes, such as gene transcription, muscle contraction and cell proliferation. The ability of a simple ion such as Ca2+ to play a pivotal role in cell biology results from the facility that cells have to shape Ca2+ signals in space, time and amplitude. To generate and interpret the variety of observed Ca2+ signals, different cell types employ components selected from a Ca2+ signalling ‘toolkit’, which comprises an array of homeostatic and sensory mechanisms. By mixing and matching components from the toolkit, cells can obtain Ca2+ signals that suit their physiology. Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of local Ca2+ signals in defining the specificity of the interaction of Ca2+ with its targets. Furthermore, local Ca2+ signals are the triggers and building blocks for larger global signals that propagate throughout cells.

scholarly journals Role of glutathione on cell adhesion and volume.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Geloen ◽  
Emmanuelle Danty
Keyword(s):  
Cell Adhesion ◽  
Cell Volume ◽  
Reduced Glutathione ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Animal Cells ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Proliferation And Apoptosis ◽  
Glutamylcysteine Synthetase

Glutathione is the most abundant thiol in animal cells. Reduced glutathione (GSH) is a major intracellular antioxidant neutralizing free radicals and detoxifying electrophiles. It plays important roles in many cellular processes, including cell differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. In the present study we demonstrate that extracellular concentration of reduced glutathione markedly increases cell volume within few hours, in a dose-response manner. Pre-incubation of cells with BSO, the inhibitor of 7-glutamylcysteine synthetase, responsible for the first step in intracellular glutathione synthesis did not change the effect of reduced glutathione on cell volume suggesting a mechanism limited to the interaction of extracellular reduced glutathione on cell membrane. Results show that reduced GSH decreases cell adhesion resulting in an increased cell volume. Since many cell types are able to transport of GSH out, the present results suggest that this could be a fundamental self-regulation of cell volume, giving the cells a self-control on their adhesion proteins.

scholarly journals The Fission Yeast Transforming Acidic Coiled Coil–related Protein Mia1p/Alp7p Is Required for Formation and Maintenance of Persistent Microtubule-organizing Centers at the Nuclear Envelope

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 2212-2222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liling Zheng ◽  
Cindi Schwartz ◽  
Liangmeng Wee ◽  
Snezhana Oliferenko
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Envelope ◽  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Coiled Coil ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Related Protein ◽  
Microtubule Organizing Centers ◽  
Nucleation Sites ◽  
Rich Material

Microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs) concentrate microtubule nucleation, attachment and bundling factors and thus restrict formation of microtubule arrays in spatial and temporal manner. How MTOCs occur remains an exciting question in cell biology. Here, we show that the transforming acidic coiled coil–related protein Mia1p/Alp7p functions in emergence of large MTOCs in interphase fission yeast cells. We found that Mia1p was a microtubule-binding protein that preferentially localized to the minus ends of microtubules and was associated with the sites of microtubule attachment to the nuclear envelope. Cells lacking Mia1p exhibited less microtubule bundles. Microtubules could be nucleated and bundled but were frequently released from the nucleation sites in mia1Δ cells. Mia1p was required for stability of microtubule bundles and persistent use of nucleation sites both in interphase and postanaphase array dynamics. The γ-tubulin–rich material was not organized in large perinuclear or microtubule-associated structures in mia1Δ cells. Interestingly, absence of microtubules in dividing wild-type cells prevented appearance of large γ-tubulin–rich MTOC structures in daughters. When microtubule polymerization was allowed, MTOCs were efficiently assembled de novo. We propose a model where MTOC emergence is a self-organizing process requiring the continuous association of microtubules with nucleation sites.

scholarly journals Fission Yeast Cells Grow Approximately Exponentially

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Pickering ◽  
Lauren Nicole Hollis ◽  
Edridge D’Souza ◽  
Nicholas Rhind
Keyword(s):  
Cell Cycle ◽  
Cell Growth ◽  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Cell Size ◽  
Exponential Growth ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Growth Period ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Yeast Growth

ABSTRACTHow the rate of cell growth is influenced by cell size is a fundamental question of cell biology. The simple model that cell growth is proportional to cell size, based on the proposition that larger cells have proportionally greater synthetic capacity than smaller cells, leads to the predication that the rate of cell growth increases exponentially with cell size. However, other modes of cell growth, including bilinear growth, have been reported. The distinction between exponential and bilinear growth has been explored in particular detail in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We have revisited the mode of fission yeast cell growth using high-resolution time-lapse microscopy and find, as previously reported, that these two growth models are difficult to distinguish both because of the similarity in shapes between exponential and bilinear curves over the two-fold change in length of a normal cell cycle and because of the substantial biological and experimental noise inherent to these experiments. Therefore, we contrived to have cells grow more than two fold, by holding them in G2 for up to eight hours. Over this extended growth period, in which cells grow up to 5.5-fold, the two growth models diverge to the point that we can confidently exclude bilinear growth as a general model for fission yeast growth. Although the growth we observe is clearly more complicated than predicted by simple exponential growth, we find that exponential growth is a robust approximation of fission yeast growth, both during an unperturbed cell cycle and during extended periods of growth.

scholarly journals Actin kinetics shapes cortical network structure and mechanics

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. e1501337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Fritzsche ◽  
Christoph Erlenkämper ◽  
Emad Moeendarbary ◽  
Guillaume Charras ◽  
Karsten Kruse
Keyword(s):  
Single Molecule ◽  
Actin Filaments ◽  
Length Distribution ◽  
Living Cells ◽  
Stochastic Simulations ◽  
Cortical Actin ◽  
Animal Cells ◽  
Cellular Mechanics ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Actin Cortex

The actin cortex of animal cells is the main determinant of cellular mechanics. The continuous turnover of cortical actin filaments enables cells to quickly respond to stimuli. Recent work has shown that most of the cortical actin is generated by only two actin nucleators, the Arp2/3 complex and the formin Diaph1. However, our understanding of their interplay, their kinetics, and the length distribution of the filaments that they nucleate within living cells is poor. Such knowledge is necessary for a thorough comprehension of cellular processes and cell mechanics from basic polymer physics principles. We determined cortical assembly rates in living cells by using single-molecule fluorescence imaging in combination with stochastic simulations. We find that formin-nucleated filaments are, on average, 10 times longer than Arp2/3-nucleated filaments. Although formin-generated filaments represent less than 10% of all actin filaments, mechanical measurements indicate that they are important determinants of cortical elasticity. Tuning the activity of actin nucleators to alter filament length distribution may thus be a mechanism allowing cells to adjust their macroscopic mechanical properties to their physiological needs.

scholarly journals Actin cables and the exocyst form two independent morphogenesis pathways in the fission yeast

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe O. Bendezú ◽  
Sophie G. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Long Range Transport ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Cell Morphogenesis ◽  
Range Transport ◽  
Actin Cables

Cell morphogenesis depends on polarized exocytosis. One widely held model posits that long-range transport and exocyst-dependent tethering of exocytic vesicles at the plasma membrane sequentially drive this process. Here, we describe that disruption of either actin-based long-range transport and microtubules or the exocyst did not abolish polarized growth in rod-shaped fission yeast cells. However, disruption of both actin cables and exocyst led to isotropic growth. Exocytic vesicles localized to cell tips in single mutants but were dispersed in double mutants. In contrast, a marker for active Cdc42, a major polarity landmark, localized to discreet cortical sites even in double mutants. Localization and photobleaching studies show that the exocyst subunits Sec6 and Sec8 localize to cell tips largely independently of the actin cytoskeleton, but in a cdc42 and phospholipid phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2)–dependent manner. Thus in fission yeast long-range cytoskeletal transport and PIP2-dependent exocyst represent parallel morphogenetic modules downstream of Cdc42, raising the possibility of similar mechanisms in other cell types.

scholarly journals Chimera proteins with affinity for membranes and microtubule tips polarize in the membrane of fission yeast cells

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (7) ◽  
pp. 1811-1816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Recouvreux ◽  
Thomas R. Sokolowski ◽  
Aristea Grammoustianou ◽  
Pieter Rein ten Wolde ◽  
Marileen Dogterom
Keyword(s):  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Binding Protein ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Signaling Proteins ◽  
Protein Distribution ◽  
Cytoplasmic Microtubule ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Membrane Anchoring ◽  
Molecular Components

Cell polarity refers to a functional spatial organization of proteins that is crucial for the control of essential cellular processes such as growth and division. To establish polarity, cells rely on elaborate regulation networks that control the distribution of proteins at the cell membrane. In fission yeast cells, a microtubule-dependent network has been identified that polarizes the distribution of signaling proteins that restricts growth to cell ends and targets the cytokinetic machinery to the middle of the cell. Although many molecular components have been shown to play a role in this network, it remains unknown which molecular functionalities are minimally required to establish a polarized protein distribution in this system. Here we show that a membrane-binding protein fragment, which distributes homogeneously in wild-type fission yeast cells, can be made to concentrate at cell ends by attaching it to a cytoplasmic microtubule end-binding protein. This concentration results in a polarized pattern of chimera proteins with a spatial extension that is very reminiscent of natural polarity patterns in fission yeast. However, chimera levels fluctuate in response to microtubule dynamics, and disruption of microtubules leads to disappearance of the pattern. Numerical simulations confirm that the combined functionality of membrane anchoring and microtubule tip affinity is in principle sufficient to create polarized patterns. Our chimera protein may thus represent a simple molecular functionality that is able to polarize the membrane, onto which additional layers of molecular complexity may be built to provide the temporal robustness that is typical of natural polarity patterns.

scholarly journals Simulation of the mechanics of actin assembly during endocytosis in yeast

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoud Nickaeen ◽  
Julien Berro ◽  
Thomas D. Pollard ◽  
Boris M. Slepchenko
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Turgor Pressure ◽  
Dendritic Structure ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Continuous Approximation ◽  
Actin Assembly ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Single Ring

We formulated a spatially resolved model to estimate forces exerted by a polymerizing actin meshwork on an invagination of the plasma membrane during endocytosis in yeast cells. The model is a continuous approximation tightly constrained by experimental data. Simulations of the model produce forces that can overcome resistance of turgor pressure in yeast cells. Strong forces emerge due to the high density of polymerized actin in the vicinity of the invagination and because of entanglement of the meshwork due to its dendritic structure and crosslinking. The model predicts forces orthogonal to the invagination that would result in a flask shape that diminishes the net force due to turgor pressure. Simulations of the model with either two rings of nucleation promoting factors as in fission yeast or a single ring of nucleation promoting factors as in budding yeast produce enough force to elongate the invagination against the turgor pressure.

scholarly journals Actin assembly produces sufficient forces for endocytosis in yeast

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (16) ◽  
pp. 2014-2024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoud Nickaeen ◽  
Julien Berro ◽  
Thomas D. Pollard ◽  
Boris M. Slepchenko
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Turgor Pressure ◽  
Dendritic Structure ◽  
Yeast Cells ◽  
Cross Linking ◽  
Actin Assembly ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Single Ring

We formulated a spatially resolved model to estimate forces exerted by a polymerizing actin meshwork on an invagination of the plasma membrane during endocytosis in yeast cells. The model, which approximates the actin meshwork as a visco-active gel exerting forces on a rigid spherocylinder representing the endocytic invagination, is tightly constrained by experimental data. Simulations of the model produce forces that can overcome resistance of turgor pressure in yeast cells. Strong forces emerge due to the high density of polymerized actin in the vicinity of the invagination and because of entanglement of the meshwork due to its dendritic structure and cross-linking. The model predicts forces orthogonal to the invagination that are consistent with formation of a flask shape, which would diminish the net force due to turgor pressure. Simulations of the model with either two rings of nucleation-promoting factors (NPFs) as in fission yeast or a single ring of NPFs as in budding yeast produce enough force to elongate the invagination against the turgor pressure.

scholarly journals A novel interplay between GEFs orchestrates Cdc42 activity during cell polarity and cytokinesis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Hercyk ◽  
Julie T. Rich-Robinson ◽  
Ahmad S. Mitoubsi ◽  
Marcus A. Harrell ◽  
Maitreyi E. Das
Keyword(s):  
Fission Yeast ◽  
Cell Polarity ◽  
Cell Separation ◽  
Cell Shape ◽  
Functional Sites ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Division Site ◽  
Summary Statement ◽  
Fine Tune ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACTCdc42, a conserved regulator of cell polarity, is activated by two GEFs, Gef1 and Scd1, in fission yeast. Whilegef1andscd1mutants exhibit distinct phenotypes, how they do so is unclear given that they activate the same GTPase. Using the GEF localization pattern during cytokinesis as a paradigm, we report a novel interplay between Gef1 and Scd1 that spatially modulates Cdc42. We find that Gef1 promotes Scd1 localization to the division site during cytokinesis and to the new end during polarized growth through the recruitment of the scaffold Scd2 via a Cdc42 feedforward pathway. Gef1-mediated Scd1 recruitment at the new end enables the transition from monopolar to bipolar growth. Reciprocally, Scd1 restricts Gef1 localization to prevent ectopic Cdc42 activation during cytokinesis to promote cell separation and during interphase to maintain cell shape. Our findings reveal an elegant regulatory pattern in which Gef1 establishes new sites of Scd1-mediated Cdc42 activity, while Scd1 restricts Gef1 to functional sites. We propose that crosstalk between GEFs is a conserved mechanism that orchestrates Cdc42 activation during complex cellular processes.Summary StatementCdc42 GEFs Gef1 and Scd1 crosstalk to fine-tune Cdc42 activity. This crosstalk promotes bipolar growth and maintains cell shape in fission yeast.

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