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Full-Text Articles in Cell and Developmental Biology

Nuclear Transport Of Single Molecules: Dwell Times At The Nuclear Pore Complex, Ulrich Kubitscheck, David Grunwald, Andreas Hoekstra, Daniel Rohleder, Thorsten Kues, Jan Peter Siebrasse, Reiner Peters Nov 2014

Nuclear Transport Of Single Molecules: Dwell Times At The Nuclear Pore Complex, Ulrich Kubitscheck, David Grunwald, Andreas Hoekstra, Daniel Rohleder, Thorsten Kues, Jan Peter Siebrasse, Reiner Peters

David Grünwald

The mechanism by which macromolecules are selectively translocated through the nuclear pore complex (NPC) is still essentially unresolved. Single molecule methods can provide unique information on topographic properties and kinetic processes of asynchronous supramolecular assemblies with excellent spatial and time resolution. Here, single-molecule far-field fluorescence microscopy was applied to the NPC of permeabilized cells. The nucleoporin Nup358 could be localized at a distance of 70 nm from POM121-GFP along the NPC axis. Binding sites of NTF2, the transport receptor of RanGDP, were observed in cytoplasmic filaments and central framework, but not nucleoplasmic filaments of the NPC. The dwell times of …


Intranuclear Binding Kinetics And Mobility Of Single Native U1 Snrnp Particles In Living Cells, David Grunwald, Beatrice Spottke, Volker Buschmann, Ulrich Kubitscheck Nov 2014

Intranuclear Binding Kinetics And Mobility Of Single Native U1 Snrnp Particles In Living Cells, David Grunwald, Beatrice Spottke, Volker Buschmann, Ulrich Kubitscheck

David Grünwald

Uridine-rich small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (U snRNPs) are splicing factors, which are diffusely distributed in the nucleoplasm and also concentrated in nuclear speckles. Fluorescently labeled, native U1 snRNPs were microinjected into the cytoplasm of living HeLa cells. After nuclear import single U1 snRNPs could be visualized and tracked at a spatial precision of 30 nm at a frame rate of 200 Hz employing a custom-built microscope with single-molecule sensitivity. The single-particle tracks revealed that most U1 snRNPs were bound to specific intranuclear sites, many of those presumably representing pre-mRNA splicing sites. The dissociation kinetics from these sites showed a multiexponential decay …


Autonomy And Robustness Of Translocation Through The Nuclear Pore Complex: A Single-Molecule Study, Thomas Dange, David Grunwald, Antje Grunwald, Reiner Peters, Ulrich Kubitscheck Nov 2014

Autonomy And Robustness Of Translocation Through The Nuclear Pore Complex: A Single-Molecule Study, Thomas Dange, David Grunwald, Antje Grunwald, Reiner Peters, Ulrich Kubitscheck

David Grünwald

All molecular traffic between nucleus and cytoplasm occurs via the nuclear pore complex (NPC) within the nuclear envelope. In this study we analyzed the interactions of the nuclear transport receptors kapalpha2, kapbeta1, kapbeta1DeltaN44, and kapbeta2, and the model transport substrate, BSA-NLS, with NPCs to determine binding sites and kinetics using single-molecule microscopy in living cells. Recombinant transport receptors and BSA-NLS were fluorescently labeled by AlexaFluor 488, and microinjected into the cytoplasm of living HeLa cells expressing POM121-GFP as a nuclear pore marker. After bleaching the dominant GFP fluorescence the interactions of the microinjected molecules could be studied using video microscopy …


Release Of Camp Gating By The Alpha6beta4 Integrin Stimulates Lamellae Formation And The Chemotactic Migration Of Invasive Carcinoma Cells, Kathleen L. O'Connor, Leslie M. Shaw, Arthur M. Mercurio Nov 2010

Release Of Camp Gating By The Alpha6beta4 Integrin Stimulates Lamellae Formation And The Chemotactic Migration Of Invasive Carcinoma Cells, Kathleen L. O'Connor, Leslie M. Shaw, Arthur M. Mercurio

Arthur M. Mercurio

The alpha6beta4 integrin promotes carcinoma in-vasion by its activation of a phosphoinositide 3-OH (PI3-K) signaling pathway (Shaw, L.M., I. Rabinovitz, H.H.-F. Wang, A. Toker, and A.M. Mercurio. Cell. 91: 949-960). We demonstrate here using MDA-MB-435 breast carcinoma cells that alpha6beta4 stimulates chemotactic migration, a key component of invasion, but that it has no influence on haptotaxis. Stimulation of chemotaxis by alpha6beta4 expression was observed in response to either lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) or fibroblast conditioned medium. Moreover, the LPA-dependent formation of lamellae in these cells is dependent upon alpha6beta4 expression. Both lamellae formation and chemotactic migration are inhibited or "gated" by …


Dictyostelium Discoideum Plasma Membranes Contain An Actin-Nucleating Activity That Requires Ponticulin, An Integral Membrane Glycoprotein, A. Shariff, Elizabeth J. Luna Mar 2008

Dictyostelium Discoideum Plasma Membranes Contain An Actin-Nucleating Activity That Requires Ponticulin, An Integral Membrane Glycoprotein, A. Shariff, Elizabeth J. Luna

Elizabeth J. Luna

In previous equilibrium binding studies, Dictyostelium discoideum plasma membranes have been shown to bind actin and to recruit actin into filaments at the membrane surface. However, little is known about the kinetic pathway(s) through which actin assembles at these, or other, membranes. We have used actin fluorescently labeled with N-(1-pyrenyl)iodoacetamide to examine the kinetics of actin assembly in the presence of D. discoideum plasma membranes. We find that these membranes increase the rate of actin polymerization. The rate of membrane-mediated actin polymerization is linearly dependent on membrane protein concentrations up to 20 micrograms/ml. Nucleation (the association of activated actin monomers …


Binding And Assembly Of Actin Filaments By Plasma Membranes From Dictyostelium Discoideum, M. A. Schwartz, Elizabeth J. Luna Mar 2008

Binding And Assembly Of Actin Filaments By Plasma Membranes From Dictyostelium Discoideum, M. A. Schwartz, Elizabeth J. Luna

Elizabeth J. Luna

The binding of native, 125I-Bolton-Hunter-labeled actin to purified Dictyostelium discoideum plasma membranes was measured using a sedimentation assay. Binding was saturable only in the presence of the actin capping protein, gelsolin. In the presence of gelsolin, the amount of actin bound at saturation to three different membrane preparations was 80, 120, and 200 micrograms/mg of membrane protein. The respective concentrations of actin at half-saturation were 8, 12, and 18 micrograms/ml. The binding curves were sigmoidal, indicating positive cooperativity at low actin concentrations. This cooperativity appeared to be due to actin-actin associations during polymerization, since phalloidin converted the curve to a …