近日，法国遗传与分子细胞生物学研究所 (IGBMC)的Daniel Riveline及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们发现极性驱动的双细胞三维自发旋转。相关研究成果已于2024年5月13日在国际知名学术期刊《自然—物理学》上发表。
该研究团队报道了嵌入三维细胞外基质的细胞双联体能够自发旋转的现象。他们深入研究了这一旋转机制，发现其根本驱动力源于细胞皮层内肌球蛋白的极化分布。这种极化分布的不匹配取向打破了双重镜面对称性，导致细胞双联体产生旋转。此外，细胞通过粘附连接在其界面上相互连接，并通过肌球蛋白簇附近的焦点接触与细胞外基质紧密粘附。为了更准确地描述这一现象，研究人员运用了一个物理理论模型，将细胞双联体视为两个相互作用的活性表面。
通过这一模型，他们揭示了旋转是由肌球蛋白产生的主动张力梯度驱动的，而该张力的剖面则由相互作用的细胞极性轴决定。进一步的研究还发现，细胞双联体的三维形状对称性与肌球蛋白在细胞皮层分布的不对称性密切相关。为了验证这一旋转机制，研究团队采用激光消融技术抑制了肌凝蛋白簇，并通过光遗传学技术诱导生成新的肌凝蛋白簇。这项研究工作阐明了极性导向的主动机械力如何在三维空间中驱动集体细胞运动。
据悉，细胞间的机械相互作用在生物体的自组织中起着重要作用。这些相互作用如何驱动三维协调的细胞运动尚不清楚。
附：英文原文
Title: Polarity-driven three-dimensional spontaneous rotation of a cell doublet
Author: Lu, Linjie, Guyomar, Tristan, Vagne, Quentin, Berthoz, Rmi, Torres-Snchez, Alejandro, Lieb, Michle, Martin-Lemaitre, Cecilie, van Unen, Kobus, Honigmann, Alf, Pertz, Olivier, Riveline, Daniel, Salbreux, Guillaume
Issue&Volume: 2024-05-13
Abstract: Mechanical interactions between cells play a fundamental role in the self-organization of organisms. How these interactions drive coordinated cell movement in three dimensions remains unclear. Here we report that cell doublets embedded in a three-dimensional extracellular matrix undergo spontaneous rotations. We investigate the rotation mechanism and find that it is driven by a polarized distribution of myosin within cell cortices. The mismatched orientation of this polarized distribution breaks the doublet mirror symmetry. In addition, cells adhere at their interface through adherens junctions and with the extracellular matrix through focal contacts near myosin clusters. We use a physical theory describing the doublet as two interacting active surfaces to show that rotation is driven by myosin-generated gradients of active tension whose profiles are dictated by interacting cell polarity axes. We also show that three-dimensional shape symmetries are related to broken symmetries of the myosin distribution in cortices. To test for the rotation mechanism, we suppress myosin clusters using laser ablation and generate new myosin clusters by optogenetics. Our work clarifies how polarity-oriented active mechanical forces drive collective cell motion in three dimensions.
DOI: 10.1038/s41567-024-02460-w
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02460-w