Quantitative assessment of the relationship between cellular morphodynamics and signaling events by stochastic analysis of fluorescent images

Profiling cellular morphodynamics by spatiotemporal spectrum decomposition

Cellular morphology and associated morphodynamics are widely used for qualitative and quantitative assessments of cell state. Here we implement a framework to profile cellular morphodynamics based on an adaptive decomposition of local cell boundary motion into instantaneous frequency spectra defined by the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). Our approach revealed that spontaneously migrating cells with approximately homogeneous molecular makeup show remarkably consistent instantaneous frequency distributions, though they have markedly heterogeneous mobility. Distinctions in cell edge motion between these cells are captured predominantly by differences in the magnitude of the frequencies. We found that acute photo-inhibition of Vav2 guanine exchange factor, an activator of the Rho family of signaling proteins coordinating cell motility, produces significant shifts in the frequency distribution, but does not affect frequency magnitude. We therefore concluded that the frequency spectrum encodes the wiring of the molecular circuitry that regulates cell boundary movements, whereas the magnitude captures the activation level of the circuitry. We also used HHT spectra as multi-scale spatiotemporal features in statistical region merging to identify subcellular regions of distinct motion behavior. In line with our conclusion that different HHT spectra relate to different signaling regimes, we found that subcellular regions with different morphodynamics indeed exhibit distinct Rac1 activities. This algorithm thus can serve as an accurate and sensitive classifier of cellular morphodynamics to pinpoint spatial and temporal boundaries between signaling regimes.

Many studies in cell biology employ global shape descriptors to probe mechanisms of cell morphogenesis. Here, we implement a framework in this paper to profile cellular morphodynamics very locally. We employ the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) to extract along the entire cell edge spectra of instantaneous edge motion frequency and magnitude and use them to classify overall cell behavior as well as subcellular edge sectors of distinct dynamics. We find in fibroblast-like COS7 cells that the marked heterogeneity in mobility of an unstimulated population is fully captured by differences in the magnitude spectra, while the frequency spectra are conserved between cells. Using optogenetics to acutely inhibit morphogenetic signaling pathways we find that these molecular shifts are reflected by changes in the frequency spectra but not in the magnitude spectra. After clustering cell edge sectors with distinct morphodynamics we observe in cells expressing a Rac1 activity biosensor that the sectors with different frequency spectra associate with different signaling intensity and dynamics. Together, these observations let us conclude that the frequency spectrum encodes the wiring of the molecular circuitry that regulates edge movements, whereas the magnitude captures the activation level of the circuitry.

Transglutaminase type 2 plays a key role in the pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

BACKGROUND

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the aetiological agent of tuberculosis (TB), is capable of interfering with the phagosome maturation pathway, by inhibiting phagosome-lysosome fusion and the autophagic process to ensure survival and replication in macrophages. Thus, it has been proposed that the modulation of autophagy may represent a therapeutic approach to reduce MTB viability by enhancing its clearance.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate whether transglutaminase type 2 (TG2) is involved in the pathogenesis of MTB.

RESULTS

We have shown that either genetic or pharmacological inhibition of TG2 leads to a marked reduction in MTB replicative capacity. Infection of TG2 knockout mice demonstrated that TG2 is required for MTB intracellular survival in macrophages and host tissues. The same inhibitory effect can be reproduced in vitro using Z-DON, a specific inhibitor of the transamidating activity of TG2. Massive cell death observed in macrophages that properly express TG2 is hampered by the absence of the enzyme and can be largely reduced by the treatment of wild-type macrophages with the TG2 inhibitor. Our data suggest that reduced MTB replication in cells lacking TG2 is due to the impairment of LC3/autophagy homeostasis. Finally, we have shown that treatment of MTB-infected murine and human primary macrophages with cystamine, a TG2 inhibitor already tested in clinical studies, causes a reduction in intracellular colony-forming units in human macrophages similar to that achieved by the anti-TB drug capreomycin.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that inhibition of TG2 activity is a potential novel approach for the treatment of TB.