Microfilaments in Cellular and Developmental Processes

作者：Norman K. Wessells, Brian S. Spooner, John Frederick Ash, Matthews O. Bradley, Marilyn A. Ludueña, Ellen L. Taylor, Joan T. Wrenn, Kenneth M. Yamada · 发表于：Science · 年份：1971 · DOI：10.1126/science.171.3967.135 · 被引用次数：1559 · 研究领域：Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology、Microtubule and mitosis dynamics、3D Printing in Biomedical Research

In our opinion, all of the phenomena that are inhibited by cytochalasin can be thought of as resulting from contractile activity of cellular organelles. Smooth muscle contraction, clot retraction, beat of heart cells, and shortening of the tadpole tail are all cases in which no argument of substance for alternative causes can be offered. The morphogenetic processes in epithelia, contractile ring function during cytokinesis, migration of cells on a substratum, and streaming in plant cells can be explained most simply on the basis of contractility being the causal event in each process. The many similarities between the latter cases and the former ones in which contraction is certain argue for that conclusion. For instance, platelets probably contract, possess a microfilament network, and behave like undulating membrane organelles. Migrating cells possess undulating membranes and contain a similar network. It is very likely, therefore, that their network is also contractile. In all of the cases that have been examined so far, microfilaments of some type are observed in the cells; furthermore, those filaments are at points where contractility could cause the respective phenomenon. The correlations from the cytochalasin experiments greatly strengthen the case; microfilaments are present in control and "recovered" cells and respective biological phenomena take place in such cells; microfilaments are absent or altered in treated cells and the phenomena do not occur. The evidence se...