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Loading history determines the velocity of actin-network growth

Nature Cell Biology volume 7, pages 1219–1223 (2005)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 02 December 2005

Abstract

Directional polymerization of actin filaments in branched networks is one of the most powerful force-generating systems in eukaryotic cells1. Growth of densely cross-linked actin networks drives cell crawling2, intracellular transport of vesicles and organelles3,4, and movement of intracellular pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes5. Using a modified atomic force microscope (AFM), we obtained force–velocity (Fv) measurements of growing actin networks in vitro until network elongation ceased at the stall force. We found that the growth velocity of a branched actin network against increasing forces is load-independent over a wide range of forces before a convex decline to stall. Surprisingly, when force was decreased on a growing network, the velocity increased to a value greater than the previous velocity, such that two or more stable growth velocities can exist at a single load. These results demonstrate that a single Fv relationship does not capture the complete behaviour of this system, unlike other molecular motors in cells, because the growth velocity depends on loading history rather than solely on the instantaneous load.

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Figure 1: Growth of an actin network from an AFM cantilever.
Figure 2: Force–velocity relationship of actin-network growth under increasing forces.
Figure 3: Force-reduction experiments showing two stable velocities at a single force.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. W. Shaevitz, A. P. Liu, and J. L. Choy for helpful discussions and careful reading of the manuscript, as well as the entire Fletcher laboratory for support. We are also grateful to R. L. Jeng, C. Le Clainche, and M. J. Footer for assistance in protein preparation. This work was supported by a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship to O.C. and an National Science Foundation Career Award to D.A.F.

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Author notes

  1. Sapun H. Parekh and Ovijit Chaudhuri: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley,

    Sapun H. Parekh, Ovijit Chaudhuri & Daniel A. Fletcher

  2. Department of Bioengineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, CA

    Sapun H. Parekh, Ovijit Chaudhuri & Daniel A. Fletcher

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, 94305, CA

    Julie A. Theriot

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  1. Sapun H. Parekh
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Correspondence to Daniel A. Fletcher.

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Parekh, S., Chaudhuri, O., Theriot, J. et al. Loading history determines the velocity of actin-network growth. Nat Cell Biol 7, 1219–1223 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1336

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