Non-periodic oscillatory deformation of an actomyosin microdroplet encapsulated within a lipid interface.

Yukinori Nishigami, Hiroaki Ito, Seiji Sonobe, Masatoshi Ichikawa

Journal: Scientific reports 2016;6():18964

PMID: 26754862

Abstract

Active force generation in living organisms, which is mainly involved in actin cytoskeleton and myosin molecular motors, plays a crucial role in various biological processes. Although the contractile properties of actomyosin have been extensively investigated, their dynamic contribution to a deformable membrane remains unclear because of the cellular complexities and the difficulties associated with in vitro reconstitution. Here, by overcoming these experimental difficulties, we demonstrate the dynamic deformation of a reconstituted lipid interface coupled with self-organized structure of contractile actomyosin. Therein, the lipid interface repeatedly oscillates without any remarkable periods. The oscillatory deformation of the interface is caused by the aster-like three-dimensional hierarchical structure of actomyosin inside the droplet, which is revealed that the oscillation occurs stochastically as a Poisson process.

Address: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.; Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Life Science, University of Hyogo, Harima Science Park City, Hyogo 678-1297, Japan.
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