title: Synthetic polyamines: new compounds specific to actin dynamics for mammalian cell and fission yeast.
abstract: Actin is a major actor in the determination of cell shape. On the one hand, site-directed assembly/disassembly cycles of actin filaments drive protrusive force leading to lamellipodia and filopodia dynamics. Force produced by actin similarly contributes in membrane scission in endocytosis or Golgi remodeling. On the other hand, cellular processes like adhesion, immune synapse, cortex dynamics or cytokinesis are achieved by combining acto-myosin contractility and actin assembly in a complex and not fully understood manner. New chemical compounds are therefore needed to disentangle acto-myosin and actin dynamics. We have found that synthetic, cell permeant, short polyamines are promising new actin regulators in this context. They generate growth and stabilization of lamellipodia within minutes by slowing down the actin assembly/disassembly cycle and facilitating nucleation. We now report that these polyamines also slow down cytokinetic ring closure in fission yeast. This shows that these synthetic compounds are active also in yeasts, and these experiments specifically highlight that actin depolymerization is involved in the ring closure. Thus, synthetic polyamines appear to be potentially powerful agents in a quantitative approach to the role of actin in complex processes in cell biology, developmental biology and potentially cancer research.
authors: a Laboratory of Cell Physics; ISIS/IGBMC; Université de Strasbourg and CNRS (UMR 7006) ; Strasbourg , France.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Riveline
authors: Raghavan
authors: R
authors: Thiagarajan
authors: Jean-Marie
authors: JM
authors: Lehn
authors: Marie-France
authors: MF
authors: Carlier
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011073:Polyamines / Q000378:metabolism*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D011073:Polyamines
keywords: ADF, Actin depolymerizing factor; BPA, Branched polyamines; EMM5S, Edinburgh Minimal Media with 5 Supplements; F-actin, Filamentous actin; GFP, Green fluorescent protein; MPA, Macrocyclic polyamines; N-WASP, neuronal Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein; ROCK, Rho-associated protein kinase; Rlc1, Regulatory light chain 1; actin cytoskeleton; cytokinetic ring; fission yeast; lamellipodia; mammalian cells; synthetic polyamine