The Roles of Signaling in Cytoskeletal Changes, Random Movement, Direction-Sensing and Polarization of Eukaryotic Cells

Yougan Cheng, Bryan Felix, Hans G. Othmer

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Movement of cells and tissues is essential at various stages during the lifetime of an organism, including morphogenesis in early development, in the immune response to pathogens, and during wound-healing and tissue regeneration. Individual cells are able to move in a variety of microenvironments (MEs) (A glossary of the acronyms used herein is given at the end) by suitably adapting both their shape and how they transmit force to the ME, but how cells translate environmental signals into the forces that shape them and enable them to move is poorly understood. While many of the networks involved in signal detection, transduction and movement have been characterized, how intracellular signals control re-building of the cyctoskeleton to enable movement is not understood. In this review we discuss recent advances in our understanding of signal transduction networks related to direction-sensing and movement, and some of the problems that remain to be solved.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number652
JournalCells
Volume9
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 10 2020

Bibliographical note

Copyright:
This record is sourced from MEDLINE/PubMed, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine

Keywords

  • actin dynamics
  • biphasic responses
  • cell motility
  • direction sensing
  • intracellular waves
  • membrane and cortical tension
  • polarization
  • reaction-diffusion
  • signal transduction
  • symmetry-breaking

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Roles of Signaling in Cytoskeletal Changes, Random Movement, Direction-Sensing and Polarization of Eukaryotic Cells'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this