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Spatial organization of the cytoskeleton enhances cargo delivery to specific target areas on the plasma membrane of spherical cells

Hafner, AE; Rieger, H; (2016) Spatial organization of the cytoskeleton enhances cargo delivery to specific target areas on the plasma membrane of spherical cells. Physical Biology , 13 (6) , Article 066003. 10.1088/1478-3975/13/6/066003. Green open access

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Abstract

Intracellular transport is vital for the proper functioning and survival of a cell. Cargo (proteins, vesicles, organelles, etc) is transferred from its place of creation to its target locations via molecular motor assisted transport along cytoskeletal filaments. The transport efficiency is strongly affected by the spatial organization of the cytoskeleton, which constitutes an inhomogeneous, complex network. In cells with a centrosome microtubules grow radially from the central microtubule organizing center towards the cell periphery whereas actin filaments form a dense meshwork, the actin cortex, underneath the cell membrane with a broad range of orientations. The emerging ballistic motion along filaments is frequently interrupted due to constricting intersection nodes or cycles of detachment and reattachment processes in the crowded cytoplasm. In order to investigate the efficiency of search strategies established by the cell's specific spatial organization of the cytoskeleton we formulate a random velocity model with intermittent arrest states. With extensive computer simulations we analyze the dependence of the mean first passage times for narrow escape problems on the structural characteristics of the cytoskeleton, the motor properties and the fraction of time spent in each state. We find that an inhomogeneous architecture with a small width of the actin cortex constitutes an efficient intracellular search strategy.

Type: Article
Title: Spatial organization of the cytoskeleton enhances cargo delivery to specific target areas on the plasma membrane of spherical cells
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/13/6/066003
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1088/1478-3975/13/6/066003
Language: English
Additional information: Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Keywords: cytoskeleton, molecular motor, intracellular transport, random search process, mean first passage time
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10057248
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