Cell protrusions and contractions generate long-range membrane tension propagation

The distribution of long-range membrane tension across a cell is controversial. Previous studies find either that cell membranes do not propagate tension or that membrane tension propagation is potentially coupled to protrusions. Further, it is unclear whether the actin cortex resists or contributes to membrane tension. This work combined optogenetic activation of actin-driven membrane protrusions for generating local endogenous tension with dual-optical trapping for measuring and manipulating exogenous membrane tension. This powerful combination of techniques showed that the plasma membrane and actin cortex are integrated in long-range membrane tension propagation. The authors developed a composite mechanical model that predicts this integration and was experimentally validated. This study demonstrates that cell membrane tension is intrinsically coupled to actin cytoskeleton dynamics and challenges previous findings.

Do cell membranes support or resist tension propagation?

Actin-Membrane Release Initiates Cell Protrusions.

Cell migration and spreading involve the coordination of membrane trafficking, actomyosin contraction, and modifications to plasma membrane tension and area. The biochemical or biophysical basis for this coordination is however unknown. In this study, we show that during cell spreading, lamellipodia protrusion flattens plasma membrane folds and blebs and, once the plasma membrane area is depleted, there is a temporary increase in membrane tension by over twofold that is followed by activation of exocytosis and myosin contraction. Further, an artificial increase in plasma membrane tension stopped lamellipodia protrusion and activated an exocytotic burst. Subsequent decrease in tension restored spreading with activation of contraction. Conversely, blebbistatin inhibition of actomyosin contraction resulted in an even greater increase in plasma membrane tension and exocytosis activation. This spatiotemporal synchronization indicates that membrane tension is the signal that coordinates membrane trafficking, actomyosin contraction, and plasma membrane area change. We suggest that cells use plasma membrane tension as a global physical parameter to control cell motility.

Force generation by actin assembly shapes cellular membranes. An experimentally constrained multiscale model shows that a minimal branched actin network is sufficient to internalize endocytic pits against membrane tension. Around 200 activated Arp2/3 complexes are required for robust internalization. A newly developed molecule-counting method determined that ~200 Arp2/3 complexes assemble at sites of clathrin-mediated endocytosis in human cells. Simulations predict that actin self-organizes into a radial branched array with growing ends oriented toward the base of the pit. Long actin filaments bend between attachment sites in the coat and the base of the pit. Elastic energy stored in bent filaments, whose presence was confirmed by cryo-electron tomography, contributes to endocytic internalization. Elevated membrane tension directs more growing filaments toward the base of the pit, increasing actin nucleation and bending for increased force production. Thus, spatially constrained actin filament assembly utilizes an adaptive mechanism enabling endocytosis under varying physical constraints.

Cell Spreading Size Regulates Size of Clathrin-Coated Pits through Tension

There has been resurgence in determining the role of host metabolism in viral infection yet deciphering how the metabolic state of single cells affects viral entry and fusion remains unknown. Here, we have developed a novel assay multiplexing genetically-encoded biosensors with single virus tracking (SVT) to evaluate the influence of global metabolic processes on the success rate of virus entry in single cells. We found that cells with a lower ATP:ADP ratio prior to virus addition were less permissive to virus fusion and infection. These results indicated a relationship between host metabolic state and the likelihood for virus-cell fusion to occur. SVT revealed that HIV-1 virions were arrested at hemifusion in glycolytically-inactive cells. Interestingly, cells acutely treated with glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) become resistant to virus infection and also display less surface membrane cholesterol. Addition of cholesterol in these in glycolytically-inactive cells rescued the virus entry block at hemifusion and enabled completion of HIV-1 fusion. Further investigation with FRET-based membrane tension and membrane order reporters revealed a link between host cell glycolytic activity and host membrane order and tension. Indeed, cells treated with 2-DG possessed lower plasma membrane lipid order and higher tension values, respectively. Our novel imaging approach that combines lifetime imaging (FLIM) and SVT revealed not only changes in plasma membrane tension at the point of viral fusion, but also that HIV is less likely to enter cells at areas of higher membrane tension. We therefore have identified a connection between host cell glycolytic activity and membrane tension that influences HIV-1 fusion in real-time at the single-virus fusion level in live cells.

There has been resurgence in determining the role of host metabolism in viral infection yet deciphering how the metabolic state of single cells affects viral entry and fusion remains unknown. Here, we have developed a novel assay multiplexing genetically-encoded biosensors with single virus tracking (SVT) to evaluate the influence of global metabolic processes on the success rate of virus entry in single cells. We found that cells with a lower ATP:ADP ratio prior to virus addition were less permissive to virus fusion and infection. These results indicated a relationship between host metabolic state and the likelihood for virus-cell fusion to occur. SVT revealed that HIV-1 virions were arrested at hemifusion in glycolytically-inactive cells. Interestingly, cells acutely treated with glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) become resistant to virus infection and also display less surface membrane cholesterol. Addition of cholesterol in these in glycolytically-inactive cells rescued the virus entry block at hemifusion and enabled completion of HIV-1 fusion. Further investigation with FRET-based membrane tension and membrane order reporters revealed a link between host cell glycolytic activity and host membrane order and tension. Indeed, cells treated with 2-DG possessed lower plasma membrane lipid order and higher tension values, respectively. Our novel imaging approach that combines lifetime imaging (FLIM) and SVT revealed not only changes in plasma membrane tension at the point of viral fusion, but also that HIV is less likely to enter cells at areas of higher membrane tension. We therefore have identified a connection between host cell glycolytic activity and membrane tension that influences HIV-1 fusion in real-time at the single-virus fusion level in live cells.

Pay attention to membrane tension: Mechanobiology of the cell surface

Active Regulation of Cellular Membrane Tension

Mechanoregulation of Exocytosis Rates by Vesicle-Membrane Merging Kinetics

Forces applied to cellular membranes lead to transient membrane tension gradients. The way membrane tension propagates away from the stimulus site into the membrane reservoir is a key property in cellular adaptation. However, it remains unclear how tension propagation in membranes is regulated and how it depends on the cell type. Here, we investigate plasma membrane tension propagation in cultured Caenorhabditis elegans mechanosensory neurons. We show that tension propagation travels quickly and is restricted to a particular distance in the neurites — projections from the cell body of a neuron. A biophysical model of tension propagation suggests that periodic obstacle density and arrangement play key roles in controlling the propagation of mechanical information. Our experiments show that tension propagation is strongly dependent on the intact actin and microtubule cytoskeleton, whereas membrane lipid properties have minimal impact. In particular, the organization of the -spectrin network and the MEC-2 stomatin condensates in periodic scaffold act as barriers to tension propagation, limiting the spread of tension. Our findings suggest that restricting membrane tension propagation in space and time enables precise localized signaling, allows a single neuron to process mechanical signals in multiple distinct domains, thus expanding its computational capacity.

Cell membranes experience frequent stretching and poking: from cytoskeletal elements, from osmotic imbalances, from fusion and budding of vesicles, and from forces from the outside. Are the ensuing changes in membrane tension localized near the site of perturbation, or do these changes propagate rapidly through the membrane to distant parts of the cell, perhaps as a mechanical mechanism of long-range signaling? Literature statements on the timescale for membrane tension to equilibrate across a cell vary by a factor of ≈106 . This study reviews and discusses how apparently contradictory findings on tension propagation in cells can be evaluated in the context of 2D hydrodynamics and poroelasticity. Localization of tension in the cell membrane is likely critical in governing how membrane forces gate ion channels, set the subcellular distribution of vesicle fusion, and regulate the dynamics of cytoskeletal growth. Furthermore, in this study, it is proposed that cells can actively regulate the degree to which membrane tension propagates by modulating the density and arrangement of immobile transmembrane proteins. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/T6K7AIAqqBs.

A central challenge in motility research is to quantitatively understand how numerous molecular building blocks self-organize to achieve coherent shape and movement on cellular scales. A classic example of such self-organization is lamellipodial motility in which forward translocation is driven by a treadmilling actin network. Actin polymerization has been shown to be mechanically restrained by membrane tension in the lamellipodium. However, it remains unclear how membrane tension is determined, what is responsible for retraction and shaping of the rear boundary, and overall how actin-driven protrusion at the front is coordinated with retraction at the rear. To answer these questions, we utilize lamellipodial fragments from fish epithelial keratocytes which lack a cell body but retain the ability to crawl. The absence of the voluminous cell body in fragments simplifies the relation between lamellipodial geometry and cytoskeletal dynamics. We find that shape and speed are highly correlated over time within individual fragments, whereby faster crawling is accompanied by larger front-to-rear lamellipodial length. Furthermore, we find that the actin network density decays exponentially from front-to-rear indicating a constant net disassembly rate. These findings lead us to a simple hypothesis of a disassembly clock mechanism in which rear position is determined by where the actin network has disassembled enough for membrane tension to crush it and haul it forward. This model allows us to directly relate membrane tension with actin assembly and disassembly dynamics and elucidate the role of the cell membrane as a global mechanical regulator which coordinates protrusion and retraction.

Synaptic vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane in response to Ca(2+) influx, thereby releasing neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. The protein machinery that mediates this process, consisting of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) and regulatory proteins, is well known, but the mechanisms by which these proteins prime synaptic membranes for fusion are debated. In this study, we applied large-scale, automated cryo-electron tomography to image an in vitro system that reconstitutes synaptic fusion. Our findings suggest that upon docking and priming of vesicles for fast Ca(2)(+)-triggered fusion, SNARE proteins act in concert with regulatory proteins to induce a local protrusion in the plasma membrane, directed towards the primed vesicle. The SNAREs and regulatory proteins thereby stabilize the membrane in a high-energy state from which the activation energy for fusion is profoundly reduced, allowing synchronous and instantaneous fusion upon release of the complexin clamp.