The paper
X. Wang, et al., “Light-mediated activation reveals a key role for Rac in collective guidance of cell movement in vivo,” Nature Cell Biology, 12:591–98, 2010. http://bit.ly/Raclight
The finding
When Denise Montell and her team at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine engineered an actin cytoskeleton-regulating protein to be light sensitive, they discovered it could also control cellular movement in vivo. When they shone light on one part of the cell, the Rac protein changed conformation into the active state and the cell, along with its surrounding cells, would move towards the direction of the activated Rac.
The surprise
“This paper is among the first to delve into the mysterious molecular mechanics of collective cell movement,” writes Faculty Member Jonathan Chernoff in his review. When Montell used blue light to activate Rac in just one cell, the entire group of embryonic epithelial cells, called border cells, followed its lead ...
