2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
In vitro reconstitution of the spontaneous establishment of the polarity of motile cells
| Project/Area Number |
15K14497
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Biophysics
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Research Collaborator |
TANABE Masatoshi
SUZUKI Kazuya
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | 細胞運動 / 細胞骨格 / アクトミオシン / 分子モーター / 自発的対称性の破れ |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Actin polymerization can push the cell membrane, which is a driving force of cell migration. It has been generally thought that the retrograde F-actin flow maintained from the reading edge to the trailing edge allows cells to migrate uni-directionally. However, resting cells exhibit a disk-like shape and the actin flow shows point symmetrical pattern. To understand the mechanism of the spontaneous establishment of retrograde actin flow, we developed an artificial cell system by encapsulating Xenopus egg extracts into water-in-oil droplets and we have succeeded in reconstituting the actin flow in vitro. By using this system, we found that the actin flow became asymmetric in small droplets, and biochemical perturbations revealed that the transition point was dependent of the actin polymerization activities.
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| Free Research Field |
生物物理学
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