Force-induced formation and propagation of adhesion nanodomains in living fungal cells.
(2010) Proceedings of the National academy of sciences of the United States of America — Vol. 107, n° 48, p. 20744-20749 (2010)
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- Abstract
- Understanding how cell adhesion proteins form adhesion domains is a key challenge in cell biology. Here, we use single-molecule atomic force microscopy (AFM) to demonstrate the force-induced formation and propagation of adhesion nanodomains in living fungal cells, focusing on the covalently anchored cell-wall protein Als5p from Candida albicans. We show that pulling on single adhesins with AFM tips terminated with specific antibodies triggers the formation of adhesion domains of 100-500 nm and that the force-induced nanodomains propagate over the entire cell surface. Control experiments (with cells lacking Als5p, single-site mutation in the protein, bare tips, and tips modified with irrelevant antibodies) demonstrate that Als5p nanodomains result from protein redistribution triggered by force-induced conformational changes in the initially probed proteins, rather than from nonspecific cell-wall perturbations. Als5p remodeling is independent of cellular metabolic activity because heat-killed cells show the same behavior as live cells. Using AFM and fluorescence microscopy, we also find that nanodomains are formed within ∼30 min and migrate at a speed of ∼20 nm·min(-1), indicating that domain formation and propagation are slow, time-dependent processes. These results demonstrate that mechanical stimuli can trigger adhesion nanodomains in fungal cells and suggest that the force-induced clustering of adhesins may be a mechanism for activating cell adhesion.
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Alsteens, D., Garcia, M. C., Lipke, P. N., & Dufrêne, Y. (2010). Force-induced formation and propagation of adhesion nanodomains in living fungal cells. Proceedings of the National academy of sciences of the United States of America, 107(48), 20744-20749. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1013893107 (Original work published 2010)