Kansas State University

David Sherwood to present Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Seminar

Submitted by Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

David Sherwood, professor of biology at Duke University, will be the featured speaker for this week's Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Seminar. Sherwood will present "Specialized High-Capacity Mitochondria Power Cell Invasion through Basement Membrane Barriers" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, in 120 Ackert Hall.

Cell invasion across basement membrane extracellular matrices occurs in normal developmental processes as well as immune cell trafficking. Further, the inappropriate acquisition of this behavior by tumor cells is the defining step that initiates metastatic disease. Anchor Cell, or AC, invasion in C. elegans is a simple in vivo model to visualize and genetically dissect cell invasion in real-time. The pathways and mechanisms promoting AC invasion are shared with cancer cells, including expression of matrix-metalloproteinases that breakdown basement membrane and the presence of F-actin rich invadopodial membrane protrusions that breach basement membrane barriers. We recently demonstrated that mitochondria are enriched at the invasive cell membrane of the AC and produce a burst of ATP to fuel polymerization of branched F-actin networks required for invadopodial-mediated basement membrane invasion. To further understand how cell metabolism powers invasion, we are investigating mechanisms of nutrient acquisition, mitochondria regulation, and ATP dynamics. Sherwood will present recent studies showing how energy acquisition and use are integrated into the cell invasion program and our discovery that the AC harbors specialized mitochondria that dynamically deliver high levels of ATP to fuel the invasive machinery that breaches the basement membrane.