Studies of mechanical aspects of amoeboid locomotion

When a cell crawls over a surface, it exerts forces which both change its shape and deformability and propel it forward. The mechanisms involved are poorly understood. They can best be studied by combining biochemical and molecular genetic methods with direct, quantitative measurements of mechanical properties. Measurements of cellular deformability provide indications of contractile tension developed within the cell and of cytoskeletal reorganizations which influence local cellular viscoelasticity. An example is the capping of cross-linked cell surface proteins, which occurs on cells as diverse as mammalian lymphocytes and the unicellular amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. Deformability measurements show that cells stiffen as they cap. Measurements on wild-type Dictyostelium cells and on cells engineered to lack conventional myosin (myosin II) demonstrate that capping requires myosin II and that the concurrent cellular stiffening results from a myosin-II-dependent contractile force. Measurements of the systematic transport of beads rearward over the surfaces of cells characterize a mechanism of movement which could be used to drive the cell forward. Capping is one such mechanism. A distinct myosin-II-independent form of rearward transport is revealed in measurements of fluorescent beads on the Dictyostelium cells which lack this protein. In addition to studies of cell locomotion, measurements of cellular mechanical properties can provide quantitative assays of the functions of cytoskeletal components. Such studies are motivated by the nature of cytoskeletal proteins whose function, in contrast to enzymes, are mechanical rather than catalytic.