Motility articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intraflagellar transport is essential for the formation and function of cilia. Here, the authors use single-molecule imaging in live C. elegans to show that transport trains are formed by the sequential attachment of proteins before departing into the cilium.

    • Aniruddha Mitra
    • , Elizaveta Loseva
    •  & Erwin J. G. Peterman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A common approach to study bacterial motility is fluorescent labelling, but this can be hampered by protein expression instability and/or interference with bacterial physiology. Here, Abe et al. describe a machine learning-based method for motion tracking of spirochetes on cultured animal cells, which does not require labelling and might be applied to study motility of other bacterial species.

    • Keigo Abe
    • , Nobuo Koizumi
    •  & Shuichi Nakamura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lis1 and Nde1/Ndel1 mediate the initiation of dynein-driven transport, but the mechanism remains unclear. Here, the authors reveal that Nde1 recruits Lis1 to autoinhibited dynein and promotes Lis1-mediated assembly of active dynein transport machinery.

    • Yuanchang Zhao
    • , Sena Oten
    •  & Ahmet Yildiz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In 1952, Turing unlocked the reaction-diffusion basis of natural patterns, such as zebra stripes. The authors propose a reaction-diffusion model that recreates characteristics of the flagellar waveform for bull sperm and Chlamydomonas flagella.

    • James F. Cass
    •  & Hermes Bloomfield-Gadêlha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Collective motion arises from the coordination of individuals and entails the adjustment of their respective velocities. Yet, how individuals achieve this coordination is often not understood. For migrating cells and motorized agents, Riedl et al. show that the synchronization of the intrinsic oscillator through nearest neighbour coupling establishes the necessary feedback leading to a uniform speed within the collective.

    • Michael Riedl
    • , Isabelle Mayer
    •  & Björn Hof

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myxococcus xanthus forages and moves collectively to prey and feed on other bacterial species. Here, the authors challenge the conventional idea that during Myxococcus xanthus predation, A- and S-motilities are limited to specific forager and swarm roles and reveal a synergistic interaction between these motilities to enhance predation efficiency.

    • Sara Rombouts
    • , Anna Mas
    •  & Marcelo Nollmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microtubule inner proteins (MIPs) contribute to species-specific motility characteristics but are largely unstudied. Here, the authors combine functional, structural and proteomic analysis in T. brucei to advance fundamental understanding of MIP assembly and identify trypanosome-specific MIPs required for motility.

    • Michelle M. Shimogawa
    • , Angeline S. Wijono
    •  & Kent L. Hill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report the high-resolution structure of human β-cardiac myosin in its sequestered state. The results provide insights into the cardiac regulation and represent a tool to investigate the development of inherited cardiomyopathies.

    • Alessandro Grinzato
    • , Daniel Auguin
    •  & Julien Robert-Paganin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myosin transduces chemical energy into mechanical work, but the mechanism remains unclear. In this work, the authors show that force-generation precedes product release and that a mutation in the active site alters the load dependence of product release.

    • Christopher Marang
    • , Brent Scott
    •  & Edward P. Debold

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The existence of multicellular systems relies on coordinated cell motion in three dimensions. Here, cell migration in rotating spherical tissues is shown to exhibit a collective mode with a single-wavelength velocity wave, which arises from the effect of curvature on the flocking behavior of cells on a spherical surface.

    • Tom Brandstätter
    • , David B. Brückner
    •  & Chase P. Broedersz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sharpshooters can catapult their droplet excreta with a speed faster than their own movement speed. Challita et al. find that superpropulsion is achieved by the temporal tuning between the droplet and the stylus.

    • Elio J. Challita
    • , Prateek Sehgal
    •  & M. Saad Bhamla

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work the authors report a quasi two-dimensional population of living cells that can spontaneously self-assemble into finite-sized domains, an analogue of the microphase separation known in inert matter.

    • A. Carrère
    • , J. d’Alessandro
    •  & J.-P. Rieu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Channelrhodopsin photoreceptors are responsible for phototaxis in C. reinhardtii. Here, authors introduce point mutations in the channel which modify photocycle kinetics and ion selectivity, resulting in a deeper understanding of phototaxis in low light conditions.

    • Olga Baidukova
    • , Johannes Oppermann
    •  & Peter Hegemann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The communication in active systems plays an important role in their self-organization, yet the detail is not fully understood. Here, Ziepke et al. show the formation of complex structures at multiple scales amongst interactive agents that locally process information transmitted by chemical signals.

    • Alexander Ziepke
    • , Ivan Maryshev
    •  & Erwin Frey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Engineering peptide assembly that controls integrin ligand presentation on the molecular level possesses by far the highest ligand density, expanding the perspective of ligand-density-dependent modulation.

    • Xunwu Hu
    • , Sona Rani Roy
    •  & Ye Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Release of the ATP hydrolysis product orthophosphate (Pi) from the myosin active site is central in force generation but is poorly understood. Here, Moretto et al. present evidence for multistep Pi-release reconciling apparently contradictory results.

    • Luisa Moretto
    • , Marko Ušaj
    •  & Alf Månsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tissue boundaries in our body separate organs and enable healing, but boundary mechanics are not well known. Here, the authors define mechanical rules for colliding cell monolayers and use these rules to make complex, predictable tessellations.

    • Matthew A. Heinrich
    • , Ricard Alert
    •  & Daniel J. Cohen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacterial motility relies on the mechanics of the “hook” the 60 nm biopolymer at the base of rotating flagella. Here, authors observe the hook stiffening as it is twisted by the rotation of the flagellum, a mechanical feat evolved for its function.

    • Ashley L. Nord
    • , Anaïs Biquet-Bisquert
    •  & Francesco Pedaci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellular adhesions have the remarkable property that they adapt their stability to the applied mechanical load. Here, authors describe a generic physical mechanism that explains self-stabilization of idealized adhesion systems under shear.

    • Andrea Braeutigam
    • , Ahmet Nihat Simsek
    •  & Benedikt Sabass

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Systems of confined active filaments within a deformable vesicle are of relevance for development of active materials constructed from anisotropic particles. The authors propose a framework to control the transformations of the vesicle shape and filament organization.

    • Matthew S. E. Peterson
    • , Aparna Baskaran
    •  & Michael F. Hagan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Navigation through porous environments poses a major challenge for swimming microorganisms and future microrobots. This study predicts that their spreading becomes optimal when their run length is comparable to the longest available pore length.

    • Christina Kurzthaler
    • , Suvendu Mandal
    •  & Howard A. Stone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microswimmers can navigate porous environments, however the impact of their directed motility on their movement in fluid flow remains an open issue. The authors show that the motility of magnetotactic bacteria in flow through a porous constriction gives rise to nonlinear flow conductivity similar to electrical diodes.

    • Nicolas Waisbord
    • , Amin Dehkharghani
    •  & Jeffrey S. Guasto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bacterial biofilms are aggregates of surface-associated cells embedded in an extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) matrix. Here, the authors describe a unique mode of collective movement by self-propelled, surface-associated spherical microcolonies with EPS cores in the gliding bacterium Flavobacterium johnsoniae.

    • Chao Li
    • , Amanda Hurley
    •  & David J. Beebe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear how bacterial cells adapt the reversible switching of flagellar motor rotation to environments of different viscosities. Here, Antani et al. show that flagellar mechanosensors allosterically control the motor’s binding affinity for the chemotaxis response regulator, CheY-P, to adapt flagellar switching over varying viscous loads.

    • Jyot D. Antani
    • , Rachit Gupta
    •  & Pushkar P. Lele

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mitochondrial transport toward both the plus- and minus-ends of microtubules is mediated by motor proteins linked to mitochondria by TRAK adaptor proteins. Here the authors investigate the role of TRAK2 as a bidirectional motor adaptor, and propose a model where TRAK2 coordinates the activities of opposing kinesin-1 and cytoplasmic dynein motors as a single interdependent motor complex.

    • Adam R. Fenton
    • , Thomas A. Jongens
    •  & Erika L. F. Holzbaur

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cytokinetic ring constriction during cell division requires actin but curiously is independent of myosin in many organisms. Here, the authors show that anillin, a protein enriched in the contractile ring, is a non-motor actin crosslinker that generates contractile force in lieu of a molecular motor.

    • Ondřej Kučera
    • , Valerie Siahaan
    •  & Zdenek Lansky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental and genetic risk factors affect the distal airway epithelium in idiopatic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) but the role of the epithelium in IPF remains unclear. Here the authors show that pathologic activation of the ERBB-YAP axis induces dynamic and structural dysfunction in the distal airway epithelium eliciting a pro-fibrotic phenotype in mesenchymal cells.

    • Ian T. Stancil
    • , Jacob E. Michalski
    •  & David A. Schwartz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the basal body of the bacterial flagellum, the LP ring acts as a bushing supporting the distal rod for its rapid and stable rotation. Here, Yamaguchi et al. present the electron cryomicroscopy structure of the LP ring around the rod, shedding light into potential mechanisms involved in stability and assembly of the structure.

    • Tomoko Yamaguchi
    • , Fumiaki Makino
    •  & Keiichi Namba

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cells can modify their environment by depositing biochemical signals or mechanically remodelling the extracellular matrix; the impact of such self-induced environmental perturbations on cell trajectories at various scales remains unexplored. Here authors show that motile cells leave long-lived physicochemical footprints along their way, which determine their future path.

    • Joseph d’Alessandro
    • , Alex Barbier--Chebbah
    •  & Benoît Ladoux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The effect of fallopian tube’s curvature on sperm motion has not been studied in detail. Here, the authors use droplet microfluidics to create soft curved interfaces, revealing a dynamic switch in sperm motility from a progressive surface-aligned mode at low curvatures, to an aggressive surface-attacking mode at high curvatures.

    • Mohammad Reza Raveshi
    • , Melati S. Abdul Halim
    •  & Reza Nosrati

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmodium falciparum moves by an atypical process called gliding motility which comprises of atypical myosin A (PfMyoA) and filaments of the dynamic and divergent PfActin-1 (PfAct1). Here authors present the cryo-EM structure of PfMyoA bound to filamentous PfAct1 stabilized with jasplakinolide and provide insights into the interactions that are required for the parasite to produce the force and motion required for infectivity.

    • Julien Robert-Paganin
    • , Xiao-Ping Xu
    •  & Dorit Hanein

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sensory perception and metabolic homeostasis are known to deteriorate with ageing, while mechanisms underlying their deterioration remain poorly understood. Here, the authors demonstrate that decrease of intraflagellar transport in the cilia of sensory neurons impairs sensory perception and metabolism in ageing C. elegans.

    • Yincong Zhang
    • , Xiaona Zhang
    •  & Yidong Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bio-mimetic motion has been hard to achieve due to a lack of biocompatible conditions. Here, the authors report the creation of a liposome-stabilised aqueous PEG/dextran Pickering-like emulsion system with motion induced by the Marangoni effect and characterised by negative chemotaxis.

    • Shaobin Zhang
    • , Claudia Contini
    •  & Oscar Ces

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myosin-7a is found in actin bundles, microvilli and stereocilia, and plays conserved roles in hearing and vision. Here the authors identify M7BP, a myosin-7a binding protein that activates and dimerizes myosin-7a, enabling cargo transport and assembly of actin bundles and filopodia-like protrusions

    • Rong Liu
    • , Neil Billington
    •  & James R. Sellers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Actin polymerization provides force for vital processes of the eukaryotic cell, but our understanding of actin dynamics and energetics remains limited due to the lack of high-quality probes. Here authors identify a family of highly sensitive fluorescent nucleotide analogues which bind to actin and provide energy to power actin-based processes.

    • Jessica Colombo
    • , Adrien Antkowiak
    •  & Alphée Michelot

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