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Method Article
Maria Barna
Stanford University
Corresponding Author
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Cells communicate through long cellular protrusions such as filopodia and neurites. However current approaches to study these contact-based cellular communication are largely limited to actin-depolymerizing drugs or genetic knockout of key actin modifiers which can cause severe cellular stress or semi-lethality in organisms. Here we present a versatile optogenetic toolbox of artificial myosin motors that can move bidirectionally within long cellular extensions and allow for the selective transport of GFP-tagged cargo using light. Importantly, we discover that these long filopodial extensions are also gradually developed during axolotl limb regeneration, where we applied our toolbox to manipulate the composition and dynamics of these cellular extensions.
Keywords
Optogenetics, Confocal imaging, Cellular communication, Protein Transport, Axolotl
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Associated Publications
Optogenetic manipulation of cellular communication using engineered myosin motors
by Zijian Zhang, Nicolas Denans, Yingfei Liu, +4
Nature Cell Biology (01 February, 2021)
An open repository of community-contributed protocols sponsored by Nature Research.
Learn more about Protocol Exchange
Method Article
Maria Barna
Stanford University
Corresponding Author
Version History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 03 Mar, 2021
No community comments so far
Metrics
Comments: 0
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Cells communicate through long cellular protrusions such as filopodia and neurites. However current approaches to study these contact-based cellular communication are largely limited to actin-depolymerizing drugs or genetic knockout of key actin modifiers which can cause severe cellular stress or semi-lethality in organisms. Here we present a versatile optogenetic toolbox of artificial myosin motors that can move bidirectionally within long cellular extensions and allow for the selective transport of GFP-tagged cargo using light. Importantly, we discover that these long filopodial extensions are also gradually developed during axolotl limb regeneration, where we applied our toolbox to manipulate the composition and dynamics of these cellular extensions.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Loading...
Associated Publications
Optogenetic manipulation of cellular communication using engineered myosin motors
by Zijian Zhang, Nicolas Denans, Yingfei Liu, +4
Nature Cell Biology (01 February, 2021)