IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-35409-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Morphological control enables nanometer-scale dissection of cell-cell signaling complexes

Author

Listed:
  • Liam P. Dow

    (University of California)

  • Guido Gaietta

    (Scintillon Institute)

  • Yair Kaufman

    (University of California)

  • Mark F. Swift

    (Scintillon Institute)

  • Moara Lemos

    (Institut Pasteur, CNRS UMR3528, Structural Studies of Macromolecular Machines in Cellulo Unit)

  • Kerry Lane

    (University of California)

  • Matthew Hopcroft

    (University of California)

  • Armel Bezault

    (Institut Pasteur, CNRS UMR3528, Structural Studies of Macromolecular Machines in Cellulo Unit)

  • Cécile Sauvanet

    (Institut Pasteur, CNRS UMR3528, Structural Studies of Macromolecular Machines in Cellulo Unit)

  • Niels Volkmann

    (Scintillon Institute
    Université de Paris, CNRS UMR3528, Structural Image Analysis Unit)

  • Beth L. Pruitt

    (University of California)

  • Dorit Hanein

    (Scintillon Institute
    Institut Pasteur, CNRS UMR3528, Structural Studies of Macromolecular Machines in Cellulo Unit
    University of California)

Abstract

Protein micropatterning enables robust control of cell positioning on electron-microscopy substrates for cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET). However, the combination of regulated cell boundaries and the underlying electron-microscopy substrate (EM-grids) provides a poorly understood microenvironment for cell biology. Because substrate stiffness and morphology affect cellular behavior, we devised protocols to characterize the nanometer-scale details of the protein micropatterns on EM-grids by combining cryo-ET, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Measuring force displacement characteristics of holey carbon EM-grids, we found that their effective spring constant is similar to physiological values expected from skin tissues. Despite their apparent smoothness at light-microscopy resolution, spatial boundaries of the protein micropatterns are irregular at nanometer scale. Our protein micropatterning workflow provides the means to steer both positioning and morphology of cell doublets to determine nanometer details of punctate adherens junctions. Our workflow serves as the foundation for studying the fundamental structural changes governing cell-cell signaling.

Suggested Citation

  • Liam P. Dow & Guido Gaietta & Yair Kaufman & Mark F. Swift & Moara Lemos & Kerry Lane & Matthew Hopcroft & Armel Bezault & Cécile Sauvanet & Niels Volkmann & Beth L. Pruitt & Dorit Hanein, 2022. "Morphological control enables nanometer-scale dissection of cell-cell signaling complexes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35409-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35409-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35409-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-35409-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35409-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.