Keep Moving

Our bodies were made to move. Every cell and molecule dances to a single beat in a carefully choreographed routine. Keeping that movement in perfect sync requires constant regulation. Missteps can cause disease, so researchers examined one key choreographer, a protein called ERK3. ERK3 helps control the actin cytoskeleton, which gives cells the structure and strength they need to move. In experiments with ERK3 depleted, cells were unable to develop key structures essential to movement like lamellipodia (top protrusions in the human cell pictured) and filopodia (protrusions towards the bottom left). These forms are usually produced when ERK3 gives the nod to molecules called RAC1 and CDC42. Without this activation cell movement was impaired, and since altered cell migration is a hallmark of both cancer and developmental disorders, understanding these mechanisms could not just help explain the biology of disease, but perhaps point to new types of treatment.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Katarzyna Bogucka-Janczi and colleagues
• Cell Biology Unit, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, April 2023