title: Long-range self-organization of cytoskeletal myosin II filament stacks.
abstract: Although myosin II filaments are known to exist in non-muscle cells, their dynamics and organization are incompletely understood. Here, we combined structured illumination microscopy with pharmacological and genetic perturbations, to study the process of actomyosin cytoskeleton self-organization into arcs and stress fibres. A striking feature of the myosin II filament organization was their 'registered' alignment into stacks, spanning up to several micrometres in the direction orthogonal to the parallel actin bundles. While turnover of individual myosin II filaments was fast (characteristic half-life time 60 s) and independent of actin filament turnover, the process of stack formation lasted a longer time (in the range of several minutes) and required myosin II contractility, as well as actin filament assembly/disassembly and crosslinking (dependent on formin Fmnl3, cofilin1 and α-actinin-4). Furthermore, myosin filament stack formation involved long-range movements of individual myosin filaments towards each other suggesting the existence of attractive forces between myosin II filaments. These forces, possibly transmitted via mechanical deformations of the intervening actin filament network, may in turn remodel the actomyosin cytoskeleton and drive its self-organization.
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.
authors.forename: Shiqiong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.|James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Kinjal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dasbiswas
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.
authors.forename: Zhenhuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yee-Han
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Tee
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.
authors.forename: Visalatchi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Thiagarajan
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.|Laboratoire Matire et Systèmes Complexes, UMR 7057 CNRS &Université Paris Diderot, Paris 75013, France.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hersen
authors.affiliation: Advanced Imaging Center, HHMI Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA.
authors.forename: Teng-Leong
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Samuel A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Safran
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.
authors.forename: Ronen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zaidel-Bar
authors.affiliation: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117411, Singapore.|Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
authors.forename: Alexander D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Bershadsky
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D000205:Actomyosin / Q000378:metabolism*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism*; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D024462:Myosin Type II / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000205:Actomyosin; D024462:Myosin Type II