Project Details
Description
Interactions between the actin cytoskeleton and plasma
membrane are believed to be responsible for the locomotion of
cultured cells, morphogenetic cell movements and metastasis in
vivo, and amoeboid chemotaxis. Numerous studies have
demonstrated that the cell cortex is a microfilament rich zone
with gel-like consistency. It is generally believed that growth,
reorganization, sliding, disassembly and membrane attachment of
microfilaments in this region are responsible for regulating cell
shape and locomotion. Understanding of the way in which these
microfilament based reactions are regulated and coordinated
represents one of the major unsolved areas of cell biology. We are interested in the mechanisms by which ligand binding to
its receptor at the cell surface regulates cell polarity and surface
motility resulting in chemotaxis. The organism we have chosen to
study is Dictyostelium discoideum the amoeboid stage of which
exhibits chemotaxis toward cAMP or folate at different stages of
development. We propose to identify the actin binding proteins which are
responsible for the regulation of assembly of actin cytoskeleton in
the cell cortex, characterized their structure and function in vitro
and identify signals which are generated by ligand stimulation
that regulate the functions of these proteins.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 12/31/89 → 8/31/04 |
ASJC
- Cell Biology
- Medicine(all)
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Molecular Biology
- Immunology
- Cancer Research
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