Tropomyosins are present in lamellipodia of motile cells

Louise Hillberg, Li Sophie Zhao Rathje, Maria Nyåkern-Meazza, Brian Helfand, Robert D. Goldman, Clarence E. Schutt, Uno Lindberg*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper shows that high-molecular-weight tropomyosins (TMs), as well as shorter isoforms of this protein, are present in significant amounts in lamellipodia and filopodia of spreading normal and transformed cells. The presence of TM in these locales was ascertained by staining of cells with antibodies reacting with endogenous TMs and through the expression of hemaglutinin- and green fluorescent protein-tagged TM isoforms. The observations are contrary to recent reports suggesting the absence of TMs in regions,where polymerization of actin takes place, and indicate that the view of the role of TM in the formation of actin filaments needs to be significantly revised.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)399-409
Number of pages11
JournalEuropean journal of cell biology
Volume85
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 3 2006

Funding

This work was made possible through generous grants from the Swedish Cancer Society, and from the Natural Science Research Council. We are also most thankful to Dr. Mario Gimona, who made this investigation possible by placing plasmids with HA-tagged TM isoforms at our disposal. We thank Dr. Roger Karlsson for many exciting discussions. We are also grateful to Dr. John Condeelis, who gave us MTLn3 cells for this work.

Keywords

  • Actin
  • Arp2/3
  • Lamellipodia
  • Tropomyosin
  • VASP

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine
  • Histology
  • Cell Biology

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