The mechanical cell - the role of force dependencies in synchronising protein interaction networks.

Goult, Benjamin T ORCID: 0000-0002-3438-2807, von Essen, Magdaléna ORCID: 0000-0002-2412-6316 and Hytönen, Vesa P ORCID: 0000-0002-9357-1480 (2022) The mechanical cell - the role of force dependencies in synchronising protein interaction networks. Journal of cell science, 135 (22). jcs259769-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jcs.259769

Abstract

The role of mechanical signals in the proper functioning of organisms is increasingly recognised, and every cell senses physical forces and responds to them. These forces are generated both from outside the cell or via the sophisticated force-generation machinery of the cell, the cytoskeleton. All regions of the cell are connected via mechanical linkages, enabling the whole cell to function as a mechanical system. In this Review, we define some of the key concepts of how this machinery functions, highlighting the critical requirement for mechanosensory proteins, and conceptualise the coupling of mechanical linkages to mechanochemical switches that enables forces to be converted into biological signals. These mechanical couplings provide a mechanism for how mechanical crosstalk might coordinate the entire cell, its neighbours, extending into whole collections of cells, in tissues and in organs, and ultimately in the coordination and operation of entire organisms. Consequently, many diseases manifest through defects in this machinery, which we map onto schematics of the mechanical linkages within a cell. This mapping approach paves the way for the identification of additional linkages between mechanosignalling pathways and so might identify treatments for diseases, where mechanical connections are affected by mutations or where individual force-regulated components are defective.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Cytoskeleton, Protein Interaction Maps, Biomechanical Phenomena
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	13 Mar 2024 10:06
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2024 10:06
DOI:	10.1242/jcs.259769
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3179290