Regulation of the actin cycle in vivo by actin filament severing

摘要

Cycling of actin subunits between monomeric and filamentous phases is essential for cell crawling behavior. We investigated actin filament turnover rates, length, number, barbed end exposure. and binding of cofilin in bovine arterial endothelial cells moving at different speeds depending on their position in a confluent mono- layer. Fast-translocating cells near the wound edge have short filament lifetimes compared with turnover values that Proportion- ately increase in slower moving cells situated at increasing dis- tances from the wound border. Contrasted with slow cells exhib- iting slow actin filament turnover speeds, fast cells have less polymerized actin, shorter actin filaments, more free barbed ends, and less actin-associated cofilin. Cultured primary fibroblasts man- ifest identical relationships between speed and actin turnover as the endothelial cells, and fast fibroblasts expressing gelsolin have higher actin turnover rates than slow fibroblasts that lack this actin-severing protein. These results implicate actin filament sev- ering as an important control mechanism for actin cycling in cells.