Mechanisms of Actin Filament Nucleation and Mechanotransduction

Dear Colleagues,

Mechanotransduction is a mechanism that cells use to convert mechanical stimuli into electrochemical signaling and activities. This mechanism is essential to an array of cellular functions (such as motility) and physiological processes (such as touch and hearing). The transduction of mechanical cues into biochemical and electrical events inside cells is multi-scale in nature (in both space and time). At the molecular level, mechanosensing involves receptors and channel proteins that are mechanically gated to open for transduction currents. The subsequent cellular responses often involve actin polymerization and depolymerization, stimulated by actin filament nucleation. Therefore, it is essential to understand the mechanisms of actin filament nucleation and mechanotransduction in the context of mechanosensing at multiple length and time scales.

Recent studies show that actin filaments act as mechanosensors themselves, which implies that actin filaments may be more involved in mechanotransduction than previously thought. This Special Issue offers an Open Access forum for bringing together a collection of novel methods and techniques that can be shared among investigators with different approaches in studying mechanotransduction and actin filament nucleation. We encourage novices and experienced scientists to contribute research papers and reviews dedicated to studies of filament assembly and organization (as triggered by mechanical stimuli), detailed molecular processes involved in mechanotransduction, the fundamental molecular and sub-cellular aspects of mechanosensation, and the role of mechanotransduction in various physiological processes, in terms of biomedical engineering and medical applications.

Dr. Yuan-Nan Young
Dr. Parag Katira
Guest Editor

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