Reversible Membrane Pearling in Live Cells Upon Destruction of the Actin Cortex

Overview

Journal Biophys J

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Biophysics

Date 2014 Mar 11

PMID 24606932

Citations 13

Authors

Doris Heinrich

Mary Ecke

Marion Jasnin

Ulrike Engel

Gunther Gerisch

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Membrane pearling in live cells is observed when the plasma membrane is depleted of its support, the cortical actin network. Upon efficient depolymerization of actin, pearls of variable size are formed, which are connected by nanotubes of ~40 nm diameter. We show that formation of the membrane tubes and their transition into chains of pearls do not require external tension, and that they neither depend on microtubule-based molecular motors nor pressure generated by myosin-II. Pearling thus differs from blebbing. The pearling state is stable as long as actin is prevented from polymerizing. When polymerization is restored, the pearls are retracted into the cell, indicating continuity of the membrane. Our data suggest that the alternation of pearls and strings is an energetically favored state of the unsupported plasma membrane, and that one of the functions of the actin cortex is to prevent the membrane from spontaneously assuming this configuration.

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