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Force of nature: Defining the mechanical mechanisms in living cells
Date:7/16/2012

the cell, the balloon part, is known as the membrane. Protruding through the membrane, with portions both inside and outside the cell, are certain proteins called cadherins.

Outside of the cell, cadherins bind one cell to its neighbors like Velcro. The 'herin' portion of the name, in fact, shares a Latin root with "adhere."

On the inside of the cell, cadherin is connected to long fibers of actin and myosin that stretch from membrane to nucleus to membrane again. Actin and myosin work together as the muscle of the cell, providing tension that gives the cell shape and the ability to control its own movement. Without this force, the balloon of the cell would be a shapeless, immobile blob.

Puppeteer's string

"If you watch a cell moving across a glass slide, you can see it attach itself on one side of the cell and detach on the other, which causes a contraction that allows the cell to, bit by bit, pull itself from place to place," said Dunn. "It's clearly moving itself."

While it was understood that cadherin and actin are connected to one another by other proteins known as catenins, what was not known was how, when, and where the cells might be using their muscles (actin and myosin) to tug on the Velcro (cadherin) that holds them to other cells.

This is an important problem in the development of organisms, since a cell must somehow control its shape and its attachments to other cells as it grows, divides, and migrates from one place to another within the tissue. Dunn and his colleagues have shown that the actin-catenin-cadherin structure transmits force within the cell and, further, that cadherin can convey mechanical forces from one cell to the next.

It is a form of mechanical communication, like the strings of a puppeteer. Dunn and others in the field believe that these mechanical forces may be important in conveying to a cell how to position itself within a tissue, when to reproduce and when to st
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Contact: Andrew Myers
admyers@stanford.edu
650-736-2241
Stanford School of Engineering
Source:Eurekalert  

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