Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 28: Cytoskeleton

BP 28.1: Talk

Thursday, March 21, 2024, 09:30–09:45, H 2032

Actin waves as key functional structures of topological guidance and curvature sensing — •Cristina Martinez-Torres, Alexandra Faber, and Carsten Beta — Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

The motility of cells in complex environments plays a crucial role in many biomedical processes such as wound healing or cancer metastasis. While the social amoeba D. discoideum is a well-known model organism to study pseudopod-based amoeboid motility, they can also move in a highly persistent motion reminiscent of keratocytes, where cells conserve a fan-shaped morphology. The occurrence of fan-shaped cells is intrinsically linked to the presence of actin waves, which are traveling wave patterns that propagate along the cortex, contributing to protrusion-driven cell motility. Here, we study the migration of single cells on micropillars of different geometries, and we investigate the interplay of topological guidance and curvature sensing. We show that when cells are able to form actin waves, the cells migrate preferentially along the edge of the pillar surface. This curvature-guided movement is persistent and occurs for curvatures comparable to the cell size, and also for different pillar geometries (circular, triangular, rectangular). However, when the preferred motility mode is that of an amoeboid cell without actin waves, the cells show no preference for tracking the edge of the pillar surface. Our results suggest that the topological guidance via actin wave formation is therefore critical for the edge-tracking migration.

Keywords: cell motility; actin waves; curvature; microstructures