Sunday, June 1, 2025
6/1/2025
Dynamic pattern formation in the cell cortex - Project Summary The cell cortex--the outermost part of the cell including the plasma membrane and the underlying cytoskeleton--is extraordinarily important for living systems. As the boundary between the inside and outside of the cell, it must respond to an enormous variety of intracellular and extracellular signals; as the primary motor of cell shape change, it must be capable of rapidly reorganizing to drive diverse processes including cell division, cell locomotion, and cell repair. The biological and medical importance of these cortical capacities cannot be overstated: when functioning properly, they permit proper cell division, morphogenesis, and damage responses; when functioning improperly, they result in unwanted cell proliferation and metastasis, compromised development, and deficits in cell and tissue repair. Many essential cortical behaviors are controlled by the Rho GTPases which, in turn control the cortical cytoskeleton. We have recently discovered that the Rho GTPases and their upstream regulators exert their effects by virtue of their ability to self-organize into periodic cortical patterns of GTPase activity including pulses, propagating single waves, and propagating wave trains. These dynamic, self-organizing patterns are evident in cells of both vertebrates and invertebrates and they direct cell division, cell repair, and long-term cell shape changes. Here we will use new tools and approaches to determine the rules that guide the formation of these patterns and to understand the relationships between specific pattern features and the biological processes they control. This work will provide fundamental insights into the diverse processes that entail cortical reorganization and thus into the many pathologies that ensue when such reorganizations are compromised.
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