Controlling contractile instabilities in the actomyosin cortex

The actomyosin cell cortex is an active contractile material for driving cell- and tissue morphogenesis. The cortex has a tendency to form a pattern of myosin foci, which is a signature of potentially unstable behavior. How a system that is prone to such instabilities can rveliably drive morphogenes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2017-01, Vol.6
Main Authors: Nishikawa, Masatoshi, Naganathan, Sundar Ram, Jülicher, Frank, Grill, Stephan W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
active gel
Actomyosin - metabolism
actomyosin cortex
Animals
Biophysics and Structural Biology
Caenorhabditis elegans - physiology
contractile instability
Feedback, Physiological
Morphogenesis
pattern formation
rhoA GTP-Binding Protein - metabolism
Zygote - physiology
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Summary:The actomyosin cell cortex is an active contractile material for driving cell- and tissue morphogenesis. The cortex has a tendency to form a pattern of myosin foci, which is a signature of potentially unstable behavior. How a system that is prone to such instabilities can rveliably drive morphogenesis remains an outstanding question. Here, we report that in the zygote, feedback between active RhoA and myosin induces a contractile instability in the cortex. We discover that an independent RhoA pacemaking oscillator controls this instability, generating a pulsatory pattern of myosin foci and preventing the collapse of cortical material into a few dynamic contracting regions. Our work reveals how contractile instabilities that are natural to occur in mechanically active media can be biochemically controlled to robustly drive morphogenetic events.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/elife.19595