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Exocytosis provides the membrane for protrusion, at least in migrating fibroblasts

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 9, page 916 (2008)Cite this article

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Robert Kay and colleagues (Changing directions in the study of chemotaxis. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 455–463 (2008))1 cite the popular view that actin polymerization drives the forward protrusion of moving cells and suggests that “membrane flow has received little experimental support”. This statement disregards the following observations, based on fibroblasts, which suggest that exocytosis provides the surface for forward protrusion.

Endocytosis, which is driven by clathrin-coated pits, occurs randomly and internalizes ∼2% of the cell surface per min. In stationary cells, exocytosis occurs randomly on the cell surface whereas, in migrating cells, exocytosis occurs at the leading edge. This main difference between stationary and migrating cells was discovered in spreading cells2,3 and was later extended to migrating fibroblasts4.

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  1. Mark S. Bretscher is at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK. msb@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk,

    Mark S. Bretscher

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Bretscher, M. Exocytosis provides the membrane for protrusion, at least in migrating fibroblasts. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 9, 916 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2419-c3

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