Eukaryotic cells rely on their cytoskeleton to carry out coordinated motion, to transport materials within them, and to interact mechanically with their environment. To adapt to the changing requirements, the cell's cytoskeleton constantly remodels through the action of myosin II motor clusters that interact with numerous actin filaments simultaneously. Here we study the various roles of myosin II clusters in the formation and evolution of in vitro actomyosin networks as a model system for the cell's cytoskeleton.In our experiments the motor clusters can vary in size between 14 and 144 myosin II molecules and apply forces ranging from several to tens of piconewtons. During the initial process of network formation the motor clusters become embedded within the network structure, where they act as internal active cross-linkers. Myosin II clusters enhance the nucleation of network filaments/bundles in a concentration dependent manner, in the presence of the passive bundling protein fascin, thus functioning as a 'network co-nucleator'. As network formation is achieved, myosin II turns into a 'network reorganizer', where it takes part in remodeling and coarsening of the overall network structure. As a result of the strong confinement (the motor clusters within the network bundles exhibit high processivity with a fraction of attached motors p att $ 0.15), their effect on the nucleation and reorganization of the actin network is enhanced, rendering even small clusters of 14 myosin II molecules efficient. The stresses building-up in the networks lead to complex dynamics and can drive their contraction and rupture, depending on the motor concentration and cluster size. Above a certain concentration, the severing and disassembly properties of the motors dominate, and they function as 'network disassembly agents'. Myosin II motors are shown to be unique motors that function as complex machines that can perform a diversity of tasks, thereby regulating the nature of the assembled network and facilitating its formation.

During cellular migration, regulated actin assembly takes place at the cell leading edge, with continuous disassembly deeper in the cell interior. Actin polymerization at the plasma membrane results in the extension of cellular protrusions in the form of lamellipodia and filopodia. To understand how cells regulate the transformation of lamellipodia into filopodia, and to determine the major factors that control their transition, we studied actin self-assembly in the presence of Arp2/3 complex, WASp-VCA and fascin, the major proteins participating in the assembly of lamellipodia and filopodia. We show that in the early stages of actin polymerization fascin is passive while Arp2/3 mediates the formation of dense and highly branched aster-like networks of actin. Once filaments in the periphery of an aster get long enough, fascin becomes active, linking the filaments into bundles which emanate radially from the aster's surface, resulting in the formation of star-like structures. We show that the number of bundles nucleated per star, as well as their thickness and length, is controlled by the initial concentration of Arp2/3 complex ([Arp2/3]). Specifically, we tested several values of [Arp2/3] and found that for given initial concentrations of actin and fascin, the number of bundles per star, as well as their length and thickness are larger when [Arp2/3] is lower. Our experimental findings can be interpreted and explained using a theoretical scheme which combines Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations for aster growth, with a simple mechanistic model for bundles' formation and growth. According to this model, bundles emerge from the aster's (sparsely branched) surface layer. Bundles begin to form when the bending energy associated with bringing two filaments into contact is compensated by the energetic gain resulting from their fascin linking energy. As time evolves the initially thin and short bundles elongate, thus reducing their bending energy and allowing them to further associate and create thicker bundles, until all actin monomers are consumed. This process is essentially irreversible on the time scale of actin polymerization. Two structural parameters, L, which is proportional to the length of filament tips at the aster periphery and b, the spacing between their origins, dictate the onset of bundling; both depending on [Arp2/3]. Cells may use a similar mechanism to regulate filopodia formation along the cell leading edge. Such a mechanism may allow cells to have control over the localization of filopodia by recruiting specific proteins that regulate filaments length (e.g., Dia2) to specific sites along lamellipodia.

Bundles of filamentous actin form the primary building blocks of a broad range of cytoskeletal structures, including filopodia, stereocilia and microvilli. In each case, the cell uses specific associated proteins to tailor the dynamics, dimensions and mechanical properties of the bundles to suit a specific cellular function. While the length distribution of actin bundles was extensively studied, almost nothing is known about the thickness distribution. Here, we use high-resolution cryo-TEM to measure the thickness distribution of actin/fascin bundles, in vitro. We find that the thickness distribution has a prominent peak, with an exponential tail, supporting a scenario of an initial fast formation of a disc-like nucleus of short actin filaments, which only later elongates. The bundle thicknesses at steady state are found to follow the distribution of the initial nuclei indicating that no lateral coalescence occurs. Our results show that the distribution of bundles thicknesses can be controlled by monitoring the initial nucleation process. In vivo, this is done by using specific regulatory proteins complexes.

Shape transitions in developing organisms can be driven by active stresses, notably, active contractility generated by myosin motors. The mechanisms generating tissue folding are typically studied in epithelia. There, the interaction between cells is also coupled to an elastic substrate, presenting a major difficulty for studying contraction induced folding. Here we study the contraction and buckling of active, initially homogeneous, thin elastic actomyosin networks isolated from bounding surfaces. The network behaves as a poroelastic material, where a flow of fluid is generated during contraction. Contraction starts at the system boundaries, proceeds into the bulk, and eventually leads to spontaneous buckling of the sheet at the periphery. The buckling instability resulted from system self-organization and from the spontaneous emergence of density gradients driven by the active contractility. The buckling wavelength increases linearly with sheet thickness. Our system offers a well-controlled way to study mechanically induced, spontaneous shape transitions in active matter.

Cortactin is involved in invadopodia and podosome formation [1], pathogens and endosome motility [2], and persistent lamellipodia protrusion [3, 4]; its overexpression enhances cellular motility and metastatic activity [5-8]. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain cortactin's role in Arp2/3-driven actin polymerization [9, 10], yet its direct role in cell movement remains unclear. We use a biomimetic system to study the mechanism of cortactin-mediated regulation of actin-driven motility [11]. We tested the role of different cortactin variants that interact with Arp2/3 complex and actin filaments distinctively. We show that wild-type cortactin significantly enhances the bead velocity at low concentrations. Single filament experiments show that cortactin has no significant effect on actin polymerization and branch stability, whereas it strongly affects the branching rate driven by Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP)-VCA fragment and Arp2/3 complex. These results lead us to propose that cortactin plays a critical role in translating actin polymerization at a bead surface into motion, by releasing WASP-VCA from the new branching site. This enhanced release has two major effects: it increases the turnover rate of branching per WASP molecule, and it decreases the friction-like force caused by the binding of the moving surface with respect to the growing actin network.

Cross-linking proteins can mediate the emergence of rigid bundles from a dense branched network of actin filaments. To enable their binding, the filaments must first bend towards each other. We derive an explicit criterion for the onset of bundling, in terms of the initial length of filaments L, their spacing b, and cross-linker concentration f, reflecting the balance between bending and binding energies. Our model system contains actin, the branching complex Arp2/3 and the bundling protein fascin. In the first distinct stage, during which only actin and Arp2/3 are active, an entangled aster-like mesh of actin filaments is formed. Tens of seconds later, when filaments at the aster periphery are long and barely branched, a sharp transition takes place into a star-like structure, marking the onset of bundling. Now fascin and actin govern bundle growth; Arp2/3 plays no role. Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations we calculate the temporal evolution of b and L, and predict the onset of bundling as a function of f. Our predictions are in good qualitative agreement with several new experiments that are reported herein and demonstrate how f controls the aster-star transition and bundle length. We also present two models for aster growth corresponding to different experimental realizations. The first treats filament and bundle association as an irreversible sequence of elongation-association steps. The second, applicable for low f, treats bundling as a reversible self-assembly process, where the optimal bundle size is dictated by the balance between surface and bending energies. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our conclusions for the lamellipodium to filopodia transition in living cells, noting that bundles are more likely nucleated by "tip complex" cross-linkers (e.g. mDia2 or Ena/VASP), whereas fascin is mainly involved in bundle maintenance.

TRIOBP is an actin-bundling protein. Mutations of TRIOBP are associated with human deafness DFNB28. TRIOBP has three isoforms, named TRIOBP-1, TRIOBP-4, and TRIOBP-5. In vitro, TRIOBP isoform 4 (TRI-OBP-4) forms dense F-actin bundles resembling the inner ear hair cell rootlet structure. Deletion of TRIOBP isoforms 4 and 5 leads to hearing loss in mice due to the absence of stereocilia rootlets. The mechanism of actin bundle formation by TRIOBP is not fully understood. The amino acid sequences of TRI-OBP isoforms 4 and 5 contain two repeated motifs, referred to here as R1 and R2. Recent our study demonstrated that R1 motif is the major actin-binding domain of TRIOBP-4, and the binding of R2 motif with actin filaments is nonspecific. Structural analysis of TRIOBP by amino acid sequence showed ID proteins. Thus the second structure of TRIOBP may not have. To investigate the structural property of TRIOBP-4, we analyzed the structure of TRIOBP-4 by using circular dichroism, dynamic light scattering, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Our analysis show that TRIOBP has a beta-sheet, but not alpha-helix. To investigate the structure of tight F-actin bundle structure with TRIOBP, we analyzed 3-D structure of the bundle by using 3-D image analysis from transmitted electron microscope images. Eukaryotic cells rely on their cytoskeleton to carry out coordinated motion. To adapt to the changing requirements, the cell's cytoskeleton constantly remodels through the action of myosin II motors that interact with numerous actin filaments simultaneously. Here we study the various roles of myosin II clusters in the formation and evolution of in-vitro actomyosin networks. In our experiments the motor clusters can vary in size between 14 and 144 myosin II molecules and apply forces ranging between several to tens of pico Newtons. During the initial process of network formation the motor clusters become embedded within the network structure, where they act as internal active cross-linkers. Myosin II clusters enhance the nucleation of actin network in a concentration dependent manner, in the presence of passive crosslinkers, thus functioning as a 'network co-nucleator'. As network formation is achieved, myosin II turns into a 'network reorganizer', where it takes part in the remodeling and coarsening of the overall network structure. As a result of the strong confinement (the motor clusters within the network bundles exhibit high processivity with a fraction of attached motors p att R0.15), their effect in the nucleation and reorganization of the actin network is enhanced, rendering even small clusters of 14 myosin II molecules efficient. The stresses building-up in the networks lead to complex dynamics and can drive their contraction and rupture, depending on motor concentration and cluster size. Above a certain concentration, the severing and disassembly properties of the motors dominate, and they function as 'network disassembly agents'. Myosin II motors are shown to be unique motors that function as complex machines that per...

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