Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) regulates cell migration in a myosin regulatory light chain phosphorylation-independent mechanism.

J Biol Chem

From the Model Animal Research Center, Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210061, P.R. China, School of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210009, P.R. China

Published: October 2014


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Article Abstract

Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) has long been implicated in the myosin phosphorylation and force generation required for cell migration. Here, we surprisingly found that the deletion of MLCK resulted in fast cell migration, enhanced protrusion formation, and no alteration of myosin light chain phosphorylation. The mutant cells showed reduced membrane tether force and fewer membrane F-actin filaments. This phenotype was rescued by either kinase-dead MLCK or five-DFRXXL motif, a MLCK fragment with potent F-actin-binding activity. Pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays showed that the absence of MLCK led to attenuated formation of transmembrane complexes, including myosin II, integrins and fibronectin. We suggest that MLCK is not required for myosin phosphorylation in a migrating cell. A critical role of MLCK in cell migration involves regulating the cell membrane tension and protrusion necessary for migration, thereby stabilizing the membrane skeleton through F-actin-binding activity. This finding sheds light on a novel regulatory mechanism of protrusion during cell migration.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4192498PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M114.567446DOI Listing

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