Coping with the inevitable: how cells repair a torn surface membrane.
Disruption of the cell plasma membrane is a commonplace occurrence in many mechanically challenging, biological environments. 'Resealing' is the emergency response required for cell survival. Resealing is triggered by Ca2+ entering through the disruption; this causes vesicles present in cytoplasm underlying the disruption site to fuse rapidly with one another (homotypically) and also with the adjacent plasma membrane (heterotypically/exocytotically). The large vesicular products of homotypic fusion are added as a reparative 'patch' across the disruption, when its resealing requires membrane replacement. The simultaneous activation of the local cytoskeleton supports these membrane fusion events. Resealing is clearly a complex and dynamic cell adaptation, and, as we emphasize here, may be an evolutionarily primitive one that arose shortly after the ancestral eukaryote lost its protective cell wall.
McNeil
P L
PL
Department of Cellular Biology and Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912, USA. pmcneil@mail.mcg.edu
Terasaki
M
M
D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D002470:Cell Survival; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D014945:Wound Healing
D002118:Calcium