Imaging the fine-scale structure of the cellular actin cytoskeleton by Single Particle Tracking and Atomic Force Microscopy
Abstract
It has been proposed that diffusion in the plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells it is compartmentalized due to the interaction with the underlying actin-based membrane skeleton that comes into close proximity to the lipid bilayer. The cytoskeleton is a dynamic structure that maintains cell shape, enables cell motion, and plays important roles in both intra-cellular transport and cellular division. We show here the evidence of plasma membrane compartmentalization using Single Particle Tracking (SPT) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging. SPT of Quantum dot labeled lipid in the plasma membrane of live normal rat kidney cells show compartments ranging from 325 nm to 391 nm depending on the sampling time. Using AFM imaging of live NRK cell in the presence of phalloidin, the membrane compartmentalization it is visible with the average size of the compartments of 325 ± 10 nm (the main peak is centered at 260 nm). Further, the underlying membrane skeleton in fixed cells was directly imaged after partial removal of the plasma membrane to reveal size of the membrane skeleton meshwork of 339 ± 10 nm. A new method of measuring the characteristics of the actin meshwork was proposed. Probing the local compliance of the plasma membrane through the deflection of a soft AFM cantilever we can expect that the stiffness of the membrane will be higher at locations directly above a cortical actin. This new method provided information about the structure of the skeletal meshwork of neuronal cell body predicting an average compartment size of about 132 nm. This was confirmed through SPT of QD-lipid incorporated into the neuronal cell membrane.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
McNally, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Condensed matter physics
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