Cell Surface Control of Cellular Physiology

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The goal of this research is to understand how vinculin exerts a tumor-supressor-like effect on cell motility. Vinculin is a prominent component of cell and tissue structures that mediate transmembrane connections between the intracellular cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. Current models suggest that vinculin stimulates adhesion and inhibits motility by strengthening these connections through bifunctional interactions between talin-integrin complexes at vinculin's head domain and actin filaments at its tail domain. Because purified vinculin is autoinhibited, regulation of the head/tail interaction (HTI) to expose or hide ligand binding sites is hypothesized to be the mechanism by which vinculin regulates attachment of membrane proteins to cytoskeleton to control adhesion and motility. A goal of this proposal is to test this model in living cells. We developed two Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) probes that report on activated and actin-binding conformations of vinculin, a series of mutants having a graded reduction in the strength of the intramolecular HTI, and a talin-binding mutant. We propose to apply these tools to address the following specific aims: 1) Use vinculin FRET probes to test the hypothesis that there are redundant mechanisms for combinatorial activation of vinculin. Talin and actin filaments togetther can activate vinculin; we will test the roles of other vinculin ligands, as well as PIP2 and Ca2+ to define the signalling and localization cues for vinculin activation. 2) Use the head/tail interaction mutants and the talin-binding mutant to test the hypothesis that activation of vinculin regulates interactions between integrin, talin, vinculin, and actin that control cell adhesion, motility, and transduction offeree across the cell membrane. 3) Use the conformation-sensitive vinculin FRET probes to test the hypothesis that activation of vinculin responds to mechanical forces and contractility in living cells. Collaborations have been set up with Sharon Campbell to facilitate analyses of PIP2 in combinatorial activation of vinculin (part of Aim1), with Andres Garcia to measure adhesive force in cells, and with Susan Gunst to measure tension development in smooth muscle tissue (parts of Aim2). We anticipate that these studies will provide substantial new information relevant to the general question of how proteins build structures to transmit force across a membrane.