Cell migration directionality and speed are independently regulated by RasG and Gβ inDictyosteliumcells in electrotaxis

Abstract

Motile cells manifest increased migration speed and directionality in gradients of stimuli, including chemoattractants, electrical potential, and substratum stiffness. Here, we demonstrate that Dictyostelium cells move directionally in response to an electric field with specific acceleration/deceleration kinetics of directionality and migration speed. Detailed analyses of the migration kinetics suggest that migration speed and directionality are separately regulated by Gβ and RasG, respectively, in EF-directed cell migration. Cells lacking Gβ, which is essential for all chemotactic responses in Dictyostelium, showed EF-directed cell migration with the same increase in directionality in an EF as wild-type cells. However, these cells failed to show induction of the migration speed upon EF stimulation as much as wild-type cells. Loss of RasG, a key regulator of chemoattractant-directed cell migration, resulted in almost complete loss of directionality, but similar acceleration/deceleration kinetics of migration speed as wild-type cells. These results indicate that Gβ and RasG are required for the induction of migration speed and directionality, respectively, in response to an EF, suggesting separation of migration speed and directionality even with intact feedback loops between mechanical and signaling networks.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2019
Source ID
10.1242/bio.042457

Entities

People

  • Ara Lee
  • Hyeseon Kim
  • Min Zhao
  • Peter N. Devreotes
  • Pyeonghwa Jeon
  • Runchi Gao
  • Taeck J Jeon

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Chosun University
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
  • National Research Foundation of Korea
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of California, Davis
  • Yunnan Normal University

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Electrochemical Surface Science
  • Immunology and Pathology
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.