Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

In vivo optochemical control of cell contractility at single cell resolution by Ca2+ induced myosin activation

View ORCID ProfileDeqing Kong, View ORCID ProfileZhiyi Lv, Matthias Häring, Fred Wolf, View ORCID ProfileJoerg Grosshans
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/255372
Deqing Kong
1 University of Goettingen;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Deqing Kong
  • For correspondence: deqing.kong@med.uni-goettingen.de
Zhiyi Lv
1 University of Goettingen;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Zhiyi Lv
Matthias Häring
2 Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Fred Wolf
2 Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: fred@nld.ds.mpg.de
Joerg Grosshans
1 University of Goettingen;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Joerg Grosshans
  • For correspondence: jgrossh@gwdg.de
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The spatial and temporal dynamics of cell contractility plays a key role in tissue morphogenesis, wound healing and cancer invasion. Here we report a simple, single cell resolution, optochemical method to induce minute-scale cell contractions in vivo during morphogenesis. We employed the photolabile Ca2+ chelator o-nitrophenyl EGTA to induce bursts of intracellular free Ca2+ by laser photolysis. Ca2+ bursts appear within seconds and are restricted to individual target cells. Cell contraction reliably followed within a minute, to about half of the cross-sectional area. Increased Ca2+ levels and contraction were reversible and the target cells further participated in tissue morphogenesis. Depending on Rho kinase (Rok) activity but not RhoGEF2, cell contractions are paralleled with non-muscle myosin-II accumulation in the apico-medial cortex, indicating that Ca2+ bursts trigger non-muscle myosin II activation. Our approach can be easily adapted to many experimental systems and species, as no specific genetic elements are required and a widely used reagent is employed.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted January 21, 2019.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
In vivo optochemical control of cell contractility at single cell resolution by Ca2+ induced myosin activation
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
In vivo optochemical control of cell contractility at single cell resolution by Ca2+ induced myosin activation
Deqing Kong, Zhiyi Lv, Matthias Häring, Fred Wolf, Joerg Grosshans
bioRxiv 255372; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/255372
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
In vivo optochemical control of cell contractility at single cell resolution by Ca2+ induced myosin activation
Deqing Kong, Zhiyi Lv, Matthias Häring, Fred Wolf, Joerg Grosshans
bioRxiv 255372; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/255372

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Developmental Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2647)
  • Biochemistry (5271)
  • Bioengineering (3682)
  • Bioinformatics (15799)
  • Biophysics (7261)
  • Cancer Biology (5629)
  • Cell Biology (8102)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4769)
  • Ecology (7524)
  • Epidemiology (2059)
  • Evolutionary Biology (10588)
  • Genetics (7734)
  • Genomics (10138)
  • Immunology (5199)
  • Microbiology (13921)
  • Molecular Biology (5392)
  • Neuroscience (30805)
  • Paleontology (215)
  • Pathology (879)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1525)
  • Physiology (2256)
  • Plant Biology (5026)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1042)
  • Synthetic Biology (1389)
  • Systems Biology (4150)
  • Zoology (812)