dictyNews

Electronic Edition

Volume 46, number 1

January 3, 2020



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Abstracts

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Pressure sensing through Piezo channels controls whether cells migrate 

with blebs or pseudopods



Nishit Srivastava, David Traynor, Matthieu Piel, Alexandre J. Kabla & 

Robert R. Kay





PNAS, in press



Blebs and pseudopods can both power cell migration, with blebs often 

favoured in tissues, where cells encounter increased mechanical 

resistance. To investigate how migrating cells detect and respond to 

mechanical forces we used a ‘cell squasher’ to apply uniaxial pressure 

to Dictyostelium cells chemotaxing under soft agarose. As little as 100 

Pa causes a rapid (<10 sec), sustained shift to movement with blebs 

rather than pseudopods. Cells are flattened under load and lose volume; 

the actin cytoskeleton is reorganized, with myosin-II recruited to the 

cortex, which may pressurize the cytoplasm for blebbing. The transition 

to bleb-driven motility requires extra-cellular calcium and is accompanied 

by increased cytosolic calcium. It is largely abrogated in cells lacking the 

Piezo stretch-operated channel; under load, these cells persist in using 

pseudopods and chemotax poorly. We propose that migrating cells 

sense pressure through Piezo, which mediates calcium influx, directing 

movement with blebs instead of pseudopods.





submitted by:  Rob Kay [[log in to unmask]]

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[End dictyNews, volume 46, number 1]