New Model Brings Insight to Cell Organelle’s Structure and Function

Story by:

• Michelle Franklin- [email protected]

Share This:

Article Content

The peripheral endoplasmic reticulum (ER) forms a continuous, dynamic network of tubules that plays an important role in protein transport and quality control, cellular signaling, and stress response. Investigating how the unique structure of the ER arises and supports its function is critical to developing a mechanistic understanding of the many neurological diseases associated with ER structural perturbations.

A team of researchers, including two from UC San Diego, have developed a physical model demonstrating that the structure and dynamics of the ER arise from a balance of tension-driven shrinking and the active pulling of new tubules. This "active liquid network" reveals how its cellular-scale structure emerges from small-scale dynamic rearrangements. These results shed light on how the ER is able to maintain a dense, rapidly rearranging network of tubules critical to its role as a delivery hub for proteins, lipids, and ions throughout the cell.

The study was published October 11, 2024 in PNAS. UC San Diego authors are Associate Professor of Physics Elena Koslover and graduate student Zubenelgenubi C. Scott. Their research was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation (no. 2034482), the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Read the study in PNAS:"The endoplasmic reticulum as an active liquid network.

"The ability to maintain large, complex structures in the face of constant turnover is a defining characteristic of living cells. Understanding how this is accomplished is a key step toward unraveling the fundamental principles that govern living matter." Elena Koslover