Myosin cluster dynamics determines epithelial wound ring constriction

Abstract

Collection of myosin motors and actin filaments can self-assemble into submicrometric clusters under the regulation of RhoA. Emergent dynamics of these clusters have been reported in a variety of morphogenetic systems, ranging from Drosophila to acto-myosin assays in vitro. In single cell cytokinetic rings, acto-myosin clusters are associated with stress generation when radial and transport when tangential with respect to the ring closure. Here, we show that these phenomena hold true for acto-myosin multi-cellular rings during wound closure in epithelial monolayers. We assessed the activity of RhoA using FRET sensors, and we report that cluster dynamics does not correlate with RhoA activity. Nevertheless, we show that bursts of RhoA activation precede recruitment of myosin. Altogether myosin clusters dynamics is conserved between single and multi-cellular systems and this suggests that they could be used as generic read-outs for mapping and predicting stress generation and shape changes in morphogenesis.