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Actin Dynamics and Force Generation in the Motility of Listeria Monocytogenes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

David C. Fung  and
Julie A. Theriot
David C. Fung
Affiliation:
Whitehead Institute for Biomédical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142
Julie A. Theriot
Affiliation:
Whitehead Institute for Biomédical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142
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Extract

The gram-positive bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is one of several intracellular pathogens which can move about within its host's cytoplasm using a form of actin-based motility. This motility plays an important role in the virulence of the microbe, which can cause serious disease in humans. Actin is a host-cell protein whose polymerization is required for the locomotion of animal cells. L. monocytogenes exploits this normal cellular machinery for its own movement by creating a “comet” tail of cross-linked actin filaments behind it. Actin polymerization occurs at the bacterial surface and is required to drive the bacterium forward.

We are interested in how L. monocytogenes induces the polymerization of actin and how this polymerization can lead to the generation of force. To study this, we have used time-lapse videomicroscopy and a cell-free system derived from Xenopus egg extracts. We have observed rare instances of a saltatory movement of L. monocytogenes in these extracts.

Type
Innovative Approaches to 3-D Structure/Function Determination for Cells and Organelles
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '97, Microscopy Society of America 55th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 31st Annual Meeting, Histochemical Society 48th Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, August 10-14, 1997 , August 1997 , pp. 209 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997

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References

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4. This research was supported by Grant AI-36929 (to J.A.T.) from the National Institutes of Health.Google Scholar