Figure 11

Fig. 11. Two treadmilling models for actin turnover in lamellipodia. (a) Treadmilling of individual filaments suggests that each actin filament in the actin network simultaneously assembles subunits at its barbed end and releases subunits from the pointed end, thus continuously reproducing itself by treadmilling mechanism. Treadmilling of individual filaments collectively results in the treadmilling of the lamellipodial network. (b) Treadmilling of the dendritic array suggests frequent formation of new filaments by de novo nucleation, which occurs within the narrow zone at the leading edge,--the actin brush. "Newborn" filaments become immediately incorporated into the actin array as branches of pre-existing filaments. Within the actin brush, filaments are protected from depolymerization at pointed ends. Nucleation, cross-linking, and pointed end capping are proposed to be mediated by the Arp2/3 complex. Many barbed ends are predicted to be capped to prevent exponential increase in filament mass. Release of the Arp2/3 complex from Y-junctions behind the actin brush followed by ADF/cofilin-mediated dissociation of actin subunits from pointed ends may be a major pathway for actin array disassembly. By this model, an individual filament in the dendritic array does not treadmill, but rather first grows at the barbed end and later shrinks at the pointed end. However, the actin filament array as a whole treadmills, reproducing itself at the cell front and dismantling itself at the lamellipodial rear. Growing barbed ends are shaded in grey.