Person:

Upadhyayula, Srigokul

Membrane remodeling is an essential part of transferring components to and from the cell surface and membrane-bound organelles and for changes in cell shape, which are particularly critical during cell division. Earlier analyses, based on classical optical live-cell imaging and mostly restricted by technical necessity to the attached bottom surface, showed persistent formation of endocytic clathrin pits and vesicles during mitosis. Taking advantage of the resolution, speed, and noninvasive illumination of the newly developed lattice light-sheet fluorescence microscope, we reexamined their assembly dynamics over the entire cell surface and found that clathrin pits form at a lower rate during late mitosis. Full-cell imaging measurements of cell surface area and volume throughout the cell cycle of single cells in culture and in zebrafish embryos showed that the total surface increased rapidly during the transition from telophase to cytokinesis, whereas cell volume increased slightly in metaphase and was relatively constant during cytokinesis. These applications demonstrate the advantage of lattice light-sheet microscopy and enable a new standard for imaging membrane dynamics in single cells and multicellular assemblies.

The ESCRT machinery mediates reverse membrane scission. By quantitative fluorescence lattice light-sheet microscopy, we have shown that ESCRT-III subunits polymerize rapidly on yeast endosomes, together with the recruitment of at least two Vps4 hexamers. During their 3–45 s lifetimes, the ESCRT-III assemblies accumulated 75–200 Snf7 and 15–50 Vps24 molecules. Productive budding events required at least two additional Vps4 hexamers. Membrane budding was associated with continuous, stochastic exchange of Vps4 and ESCRT-III components, rather than steady growth of fixed assemblies, and depended on Vps4 ATPase activity. An all-or-none step led to final release of ESCRT-III and Vps4. Tomographic electron microscopy demonstrated that acute disruption of Vps4 recruitment stalled membrane budding. We propose a model in which multiple Vps4 hexamers (four or more) draw together several ESCRT-III filaments. This process induces cargo crowding and inward membrane buckling, followed by constriction of the nascent bud neck and ultimately ILV generation by vesicle fission.

It has long been postulated, although never directly demonstrated, that mitochondria are strategically positioned in the cytoplasm to meet local requirements for energy production. Here we show that positioning of mitochondria in mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) determines the shape of intracellular energy gradients in living cells. Specifically, the ratio of ATP to ADP was highest at perinuclear areas of dense mitochondria and gradually decreased as more-peripheral sites were approached. Furthermore, the majority of mitochondria were positioned at the ventral surface of the cell, correlating with high ATP:ADP ratios close to the ventral membrane, which rapidly decreased toward the dorsal surface. We used cells deficient for the mitochondrial Rho-GTPase 1 (Miro1), an essential mediator of microtubule-based mitochondrial motility, to study how changes in mitochondrial positioning affect cytoplasmic energy distribution and cell migration, an energy-expensive process. The mitochondrial network in Miro1−/− MEFs was restricted to the perinuclear area, with few mitochondria present at the cell periphery. This change in mitochondrial distribution dramatically reduced the ratio of ATP to ADP at the cell cortex and disrupted events essential for cell movement, including actin dynamics, lamellipodia protrusion, and membrane ruffling. Cell adhesion status was also affected by changes in mitochondrial positioning; focal adhesion assembly and stability was decreased in Miro1−/− MEFs compared with Miro1+/+ MEFs. Consequently Miro1−/− MEFs migrated slower than control cells during both collective and single-cell migration. These data establish that Miro1-mediated mitochondrial positioning at the leading edge provides localized energy production that promotes cell migration by supporting membrane protrusion and focal adhesion stability.