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Protrusive Forces Generated by Dendritic Actin Networks During Cell Crawling

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Abstract

Cell protrusions during crawling motility involve growth of a dendritic actin network at the leading edge. Numerous studies over the last several decades have revealed the identity of key proteins involved in dendritic actin networks and elucidated how these proteins interact with each other during network assembly and growth, enabling reconstitution in vitro. While it is clear that growth of these networks can displace loads, the mechanism and dynamics of force generation continue to be a subject of investigation. In this chapter we describe current theories for the underlying mechanism of force generation by dendritic actin networks and discuss experimental measurements that quantify the magnitude and dynamics of the forces. Reconstitution studies have played a central role in measurements of force generation by dendritic actin networks and demonstrated how the combination of a small set of proteins leads to complex history dependent growth. Measurements of protrusion in crawling cells are now beginning to test the predictions of these reconstitution studies. We conclude by discussing how dendritic actin network growth can be integrated into an overall understanding of cell protrusions during crawling motility.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize to the many authors whose work we were not able to describe and cite due to space limitations. We thank the Fletcher lab for general discussions on the topic. OC acknowledges the support of an NSF graduate fellowship, and DAF acknowledges the support of NIH RO1 grants and the Cell Propulsion Lab, an NIH Nanomedicine Development Center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering and Biophysics Program, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Daniel A. Fletcher

  2. Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Ovijit Chaudhuri & Daniel A. Fletcher

  3. Department and Biophysics Program, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Ovijit Chaudhuri

Authors
  1. Ovijit Chaudhuri
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  2. Daniel A. Fletcher
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Correspondence to Daniel A. Fletcher .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Laboratory of Structural Enzymology and, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, 91198, France

    Marie-France Carlier

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Chaudhuri, O., Fletcher, D.A. (2010). Protrusive Forces Generated by Dendritic Actin Networks During Cell Crawling. In: Carlier, MF. (eds) Actin-based Motility. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9301-1_15

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