@article{c3abb0e9601a4f0f9354636dfd539aaf,
title = "Competition for actin between two distinct F-actin networks defines a bistable switch for cell polarization",
abstract = "Symmetry-breaking polarization enables functional plasticity of cells and tissues and is yet not well understood. Here we show that epithelial cells, hard-wired to maintain a static morphology and to preserve tissue organization, can spontaneously switch to a migratory polarized phenotype after relaxation of the actomyosin cytoskeleton. We find that myosin II engages actin in the formation of cortical actomyosin bundles and thus makes it unavailable for deployment in the process of dendritic growth normally driving cell motility. Under low-contractility regimes, epithelial cells polarize in a front-back manner owing to the emergence of actin retrograde flows powered by dendritic polymerization of actin. Coupled to cell movement, the flows transport myosin II from the front to the back of the cell, where the motor locally 'locks' actin in contractile bundles. This polarization mechanism could be employed by embryonic and cancer epithelial cells in microenvironments where high-contractility-driven cell motion is inefficient.",
author = "Lomakin, {Alexis J.} and Lee, {Kun Chun} and Han, {Sangyoon J.} and Bui, {Duyen A.} and Michael Davidson and Alex Mogilner and Gaudenz Danuser",
note = "Funding Information: The authors wish to acknowledge E. Bonder (Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, USA), T. Omelchenko (Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, New York, USA) and J. Vasiliev (National Cancer Research Center, Moscow, Russia) for providing epithelial cell lines. We are grateful to I. Ethell (University of California Riverside, California, USA), S. Narumiya (Kyoto University, Japan), K. Kaibuchi (Nagoya University, Japan) and R. Horwitz (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA) for sharing genetic constructs. We also thank M. Piel (Institut Curie, Paris, France) and D. Bonazzi (Institut Pasteur, Paris, France) for comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (grant no. 5388-13) to A.J.L., and the National Institutes of Health grants R01 GM071868 to G.D. and GM068952 to A.M. All light microscopy experiments described in the present work were performed at the Nikon Imaging Center of Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.",
year = "2015",
month = nov,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1038/ncb3246",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "17",
pages = "1435--1445",
journal = "Nature Cell Biology",
issn = "1465-7392",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "11",
}