Protein fluxes along the filopodium as a framework for understanding the growth-retraction dynamics

Abstract

We present a picture of filopodial growth and retraction from physics perspective, where we emphasize the significance of the role played by protein fluxes due to spatially extended nature of the filopodium. We review a series of works, which used stochastic simulations and mean field analytical modeling to find the concentration profile of G-actin inside a filopodium, which, in turn, determines the stationary filopodial length. In addition to extensively reviewing the prior works, we also report some new results on the role of active transport in regulating the length of filopodia. We model a filopodium where delivery of actin monomers towards the tip can occur both through passive diffusion and active transport by myosin motors. We found that the concentration profile of G-actin along the filopodium is rather non-trivial, containing a narrow minimum near the base followed by a broad maximum. For efficient enough actin transport, this non-monotonous shape is expected to occur under a broad set of conditions. We also raise the issue of slow approach to the stationary length and the possibility of multiple steady state solutions.