Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting| Aussois 2019

Biology and Physics Confront Cell-Cell Adhesion

Wednesday Speaker Abstracts

PTEN FUNCTIONS IN COLLECTIVE MIGRATION Sandrine Etienne-Manneville Institut Pasteur, France

Collective cell migration relies on the synchronization between cytoskeleton regulation, maintenance of cell-cell adhesions and adhesions with the extracellular matrix. Aberrant collective motility has been linked with several pathologies, and participates in cancer invasion and metastasis. Here we study the role of the tumour suppressor PTEN and its contribution to collective migration. PTEN is one of the most mutated or deleted tumour suppressor in human cancer and it is characterized by a double phosphatase activity, for lipids and for proteins. The lipid phosphatase activity has gained much attention as main antagoniser of the PI3K-Akt pathway for survival and proliferation. PTEN lipid phosphatase activity has also been shown crucial for the polarisation and migration of migrating single cells. In this study we are elucidating the role of PTEN in collective migration using in vitro wound-healing assay and an in vivo model of endothelial migration. We show that both the lipid and protein phosphatase activities of PTEN participate in the control of adherens junctions by controlling p120catenin phosphorylation and tissue integrity. We also show the prominent role of PTEN protein phosphatase activity in the control of the actin cytoskeleton organization and the speed of migration via the regulation of ROCK and LKB1 signaling.

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