Anisotropies in cortical tension reveal the physical basis of polarizing cortical flows

Mirjam Mayer, Martin Depken, Justin S. Bois, Frank Jülicher and Stephan W. Grill ()
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Mirjam Mayer: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Martin Depken: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Justin S. Bois: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Frank Jülicher: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
Stephan W. Grill: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics

Nature, 2010, vol. 467, issue 7315, 617-621

Abstract: Go with the actomyosin flow Cortical flows of actomyosin are central to many processes in cellular and developmental biology. In the one-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryo, anteroposterior polarity, a prerequisite for asymmetric cell division, is established by large-scale flow of the actomyosin cortex that segregates cortical polarity proteins between the anterior and posterior domains. The underlying forces and physical principles behind long-range flow remain unclear. Mayer et al. have devised a novel method to measure cortical tension (total mechanical tension) and find that cortical flows are driven by contractility of the actomyosin network. The direction of flow depends on anisotropies in the cortical tension, and long-range cortical flow occurs only if the cortex is sufficiently viscous.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09376

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