Linking actin dynamics and gene transcription to drive cellular motile functions

EN Olson, A Nordheim - Nature reviews Molecular cell biology, 2010 - nature.com
EN Olson, A Nordheim
Nature reviews Molecular cell biology, 2010nature.com
Numerous physiological and pathological stimuli promote the rearrangement of the actin
cytoskeleton, thereby modulating cellular motile functions. Although it seems intuitively
obvious that cell motility requires coordinated protein biosynthesis, until recently the linkage
between cytoskeletal actin dynamics and correlated gene activities remained unknown. This
knowledge gap was filled in part by the discovery that globular actin polymerization liberates
myocardin-related transcription factor (MRTF) cofactors, thereby inducing the nuclear …
Abstract
Numerous physiological and pathological stimuli promote the rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton, thereby modulating cellular motile functions. Although it seems intuitively obvious that cell motility requires coordinated protein biosynthesis, until recently the linkage between cytoskeletal actin dynamics and correlated gene activities remained unknown. This knowledge gap was filled in part by the discovery that globular actin polymerization liberates myocardin-related transcription factor (MRTF) cofactors, thereby inducing the nuclear transcription factor serum response factor (SRF) to modulate the expression of genes encoding structural and regulatory effectors of actin dynamics. This insight stimulated research to better understand the actin–MRTF–SRF circuit and to identify alternative mechanisms that link cytoskeletal dynamics and genome activity.
nature.com