Myova Vesicle Transport through Biomimetic Actin Networks Visualized by 3D Storm Microscopy

Abstract

Intracellular vesicular transport through the cell's physically challenging, three dimensional (3D), actin cytoskeleton requires teams of Myosin Va (MyoVa) motors to navigate vastly different structures, such as the dense cortical actin network and bundled actin filaments in filopodia. To understand how MyoVa cargo transport is achieved through and along these cytoskeletal structures, we created 3 µm thick biomimetic actin networks in vitro, using actin organizing/binding proteins (fascin, Arp2/3, WASP, gelsolin) and imaged the networks using 3D STORM microscopy.