Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: During host infection, Toxoplasma gondii and related unicellular parasites move using gliding, which differs fundamentally from other known mechanisms of eukaryotic cell motility. Gliding is thought to be powered by a thin layer of flowing filamentous (F)-actin sandwiched between the plasma membrane and a myosin-covered inner membrane complex. How this surface actin layer drives the various gliding modes observed in experiments—helical, circular, twirling and patch, pendulum or rolling—is unclear. Here we suggest that F-actin flows arise through self-organization and develop a continuum model of emergent F-actin flow within the confines provided by Toxoplasma geometry. In the presence of F-actin turnover, our model predicts the emergence of a steady-state mode in which actin transport is largely directed rearward. Removing F-actin turnover leads to actin patches that recirculate up and down the cell, which we observe experimentally for drug-stabilized actin bundles in live Toxoplasma gondii parasites. These distinct self-organized actin states can account for observed gliding modes, illustrating how different forms of gliding motility can emerge as an intrinsic consequence of the self-organizing properties of F-actin flow in a confined geometry.
Source: Nature Physics
Language: English
Subfield: Cell Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $12,290
Funders: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Office of Science, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Biological and Environmental Research
Awards: G1033088092, G1105675291, G1286236842, G1337544421, G1630696127, The Principles of Regulatory, Conformational and Evolutionary Adaptation, G223002938, G2539837713, G3083819904, G3625020390, G382641700, G419881185, G42916606, G437969117, G4501827968, G4725869750, G498139845, G5426163809, Biological Soft X-ray Tomography at the Advanced Light Source, G6393012235, G6608191692, G6652958823, G669261583, G7787287669, G848315061, G9000136331, G9000155680, Molecular mechanisms underlying force transduction at cellular adhesion complexes, G969889393
OpenAlex ID: W4403228725