Name: in vitro reconstitution of the actin cytoskeleton inside giant unilamellar vesicles
Uploaded: 2022-08-25T13:40:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about In Vitro Reconstitution of the Actin Cytoskeleton Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles at JoVE.com

We acknowledge funding ARO MURI W911NF-14-1-0403 to M.P.M., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 1R01GM126256 to M.P.M., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) U54 CA209992, NIH RO1 GM126256, NIH U54 CA209992, University of Michigan / Genentech, SUBK00016255 and Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) grant number RGY0073/2018 to M.P.M. Any opinion, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ARO, NIH, or HFSP. S.C. acknowledges fruitful discussions with V. Yadav, C. Muresan, and S. Amiri.

1. Preparation of buffers and protein solutions
<ol>
	<li>Prepare the aqueous Inner Non-Polymerization (INP) Buffer in a total volume of 5 mL by mixing 0.1 mM CaCl2, 10 mM HEPES (pH 7.5), 1 mM DTT, 0.5 mM Dabco, 320 mM sucrose, and 0.2 mM ATP.</li>
	<li>Prepare the Protein Mix (PM) by adding proteins to the INP buffer at 4 &#176;C with the following concentrations: 11.2 &#181;M non-fluorescent G-actin, 2.8 &#181;M fluorescently labeled actin, and 0.24 &#181;M Arp2/3 (Table of Materia...

Several key steps determine the success of a high yield of liposomes during the preparation process. To completely dissolve the lipid film in the oil, the sample must be sonicated until the lipid film at the bottom of the glass vial disappears completely. After the sonication, the lipid-oil mixture must be stored overnight at room temperature under dark conditions for the lipid molecules to disperse further29. The mixture can be stored at 4 &#176;C for up to a week. When preparing an FB/oil emulsi...

The actin cytoskeleton plays a fundamental role in constructing the intracellular architecture of the cell by coordinating molecular-level contractility and force generation1,2,3. As a result, it mediates numerous essential cellular activities, including cell deformation4,5, division6, migration7,8, and adhesion9. The in vitro reconstitution of actin networks has gained tremendous attention in recent years10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17. The goal of reconstitution is to build a minimal model of the cell devoid of the complex biochemical regulation that exists within live cells. This offers a controllable environment to probe specific intracellular activities and facilitates the identification and analysis of different components of the actin cytoskeleton18,19. Further, the encapsulation of in vitro actin networks inside phospholipid giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs, liposomes) provides a confined but deformable space with a semi-permeable boundary. It mimics the physiological and mechanical microenvironment of the actin machinery within the cell9,20,21,22.
Among various methods to prepare liposomes, the lipid film hydration method (also known as the swelling method) is one of the earliest techniques23. The dry lipid film hydrates with the addition of buffers, forming membranous bubbles that eventually become vesicles24. To produce larger vesicles with a higher yield, an improved method advancing from the film hydration method, known as the electroformation method25, applies an AC electric field to efficiently promote the hydration process26. The major limitations of these hydration-based methods for actin encapsulation are that it has low encapsulation efficiency of highly concentrated proteins, and it is only compatible with specific lipid compositions24. The inverted emulsion technique, in comparison, has fewer limitations for lipid components and protein concentrations20,27,28,29. In this method, a mixture of proteins for encapsulation is added to the inner aqueous buffer, which is later emulsified in a lipid-containing mineral oil solution, forming lipid-monolayer droplets. The monolayer lipid droplets then cross through another lipid/oil-water interface through centrifugation to form bilayer lipid vesicles (liposomes). This technique has proven to be one of the most successful strategies for actin encapsulation24,30. Separately, there are some microfluidic device methods, including pulsed jetting31,32, transient membrane ejection33, and the cDICE method34. The similarities between the inverted emulsion method and the microfluidic method are the lipid solvent (oil) that is utilized and the introduction of lipid/oil-water interface for the formation of the outer leaflet of liposomes. By contrast, the generation of liposomes by the microfluidic method requires a set-up of microfluidic devices and is accompanied by oil trapped between the two leaflets of the bilayer, which requires an extra step for oil removal35.
In this manuscript, we used the inverted emulsion technique to prepare liposomes encapsulating a polymerized F-actin network as used previously22. The protein mixture for encapsulation was first placed in a buffer with nonpolymerizing conditions to maintain actin in its globular (G) form. The whole process was carried out at 4 &#176;C to prevent early actin polymerization, which was later triggered by allowing the sample to warm to room temperature. Once at room temperature, the actin polymerizes into its filamentous (F) form. A variety of actin-binding proteins can be added to the inner aqueous buffer solution to study protein functionalities and properties, thus, further providing insights into its interaction with the actin network and membrane surface. This method can also be applied to the encapsulation of various proteins of interest36&#160;and large objects (microparticles, self-propelled microswimmers, etc.) close to the size of the final liposomes28,37.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-{[n(5-amino-1-carboxypentyl)iminodiacetic acid]succinyl} nickel salt (DOGS-NTA-Ni)&#160;</td>
			<td>Avanti Polar Lipids Inc.</td>
			<td>231615773</td>
			<td>Nickel Lipid</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1,4-Diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>D27802-25G</td>
			<td>DABCO</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Actin protein (&#62;99% pure): rabbit skeletal muscle</td>
			<td>Cytoskeleton, Inc</td>
			<td>AKL99-D</td>
			<td>non-fluorescent G-actin</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Actin protein (rhodamine): rabbit skeletal muscle</td>
			<td>Cytoskeleton, Inc</td>
			<td>AR05</td>
			<td>fluorescently labeled actin</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Adenosine 5&#8242;-triphosphate disodium salt hydrate</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>A2383-10G</td>
			<td>ATP</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Alexa Fluor 647 dye</td>
			<td>ThermoFisher</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>fluorescent dye</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Andor iQ3</td>
			<td>Andor Technologies</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>control and acquisition software for confocal microscope</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Arp2/3 Protein Complex: Porcine Brain</td>
			<td>Cytoskeleton, Inc</td>
			<td>RP01P-A</td>
			<td>Arp 2/3</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Calcium chloride dihydrate</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>10035048</td>
			<td>CaCl2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Chamlide Chambers (4-well for 12 mm round coverslip)</td>
			<td>Quorum Technologies</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>incubation chamber</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cofilin protein: human recombinant</td>
			<td>Cytoskeleton, Inc</td>
			<td>CF01-C</td>
			<td>cofilin</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Confocal Microscope (63&#215; oil-immersion objective)</td>
			<td>Andor Technologies</td>
			<td>LEICA DMi8</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>D-(+)-GLUCOSE BIOXTRA</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>G7528</td>
			<td>glucose</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dithiothreitol</td>
			<td>DOT Scientific&#160;</td>
			<td>DSD11000-10</td>
			<td>DTT</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Gelsolin Protein: Homo Sapiens Recombinant</td>
			<td>Cytoskeleton, Inc</td>
			<td>HPG6</td>
			<td>gelsolin</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hamilton 1750 Gastight Syringe, 500 &#181;L, cemented needle, 22 G, 2&#34; conical tip</td>
			<td>Cole-Parmer</td>
			<td>UX-07940-53</td>
			<td>glass syringe</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEPES</td>
			<td>AmericanBio</td>
			<td>7365-45-9</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>ImageJ/Fiji</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>https://imagej.net/tutorials/</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>L-alpha-Phosphatidylcholine</td>
			<td>Avanti Polar Lipids Inc.</td>
			<td>97281442</td>
			<td>EPC</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Magnesium chloride</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>7786303</td>
			<td>MgCl2</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Mineral oil, BioReagent, for molecular biology, light oil</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>8042475</td>
			<td>mineral oil</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>N-WASP fragment WWA (aa400&#8211;501, VCA-His)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>VCA-His is purified using lab protocol. The protocol can be provided upon reasonable requests</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Oregon Green 488 1,2-Dihexadecanoyl-sn-Glycero-3-Phosphoethanolamine (Oregon Green 488 DHPE)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher</td>
			<td>O12650</td>
			<td>DHPE</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Potassium chloride</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>7447407</td>
			<td>KCl</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sucrose</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>57-50-1</td>
			<td>sucrose</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>&#946;-Casein from bovine milk</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>C6905-250MG</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

in vitro reconstitution of the actin cytoskeleton inside giant unilamellar vesicles

The actin cytoskeleton, the principal mechanical machinery in the cell, mediates numerous essential physical cellular activities, including cell deformation, division, migration, and adhesion. However, studying the dynamics and structure of the actin network in vivo is complicated by the biochemical and genetic regulation within live cells. To build a minimal model devoid of intracellular biochemical regulation, actin is encapsulated inside giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs, also called liposomes). The biomimetic liposomes are cell-sized and facilitate a quantitative insight into the mechanical and dynamical properties of the cytoskeleton network, opening a viable route for bottom-up synthetic biology. To generate liposomes for encapsulation, the inverted emulsion method (also referred to as the emulsion transfer method) is utilized, which is one of the most successful techniques for encapsulating complex solutions into liposomes to prepare various cell-mimicking systems. With this method, a mixture of proteins of interest is added to the inner buffer, which is later emulsified in a phospholipid-containing mineral oil solution to form monolayer lipid droplets. The desired liposomes are generated from monolayer lipid droplets crossing a lipid/oil-water interface. This method enables the encapsulation of concentrated actin polymers into the liposomes with desired lipid components, paving the way for in vitro reconstitution of a biomimicking cytoskeleton network.

The preparation of liposomes based on the inverted emulsion technique is illustrated graphically and schematically in Figure 1.
First, empty (bare) liposomes (~5-50 &#181;m in diameter) that were composed of phospholipid (EPC) and fluorescent lipid (DHPE) were prepared. A bright, far-red fluorescent dye was encapsulated within bare liposomes as a control experiment. Whether a lipid monolayer has successfully formed in the peripheral of the droplet could be determi...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about In Vitro Reconstitution of the Actin Cytoskeleton Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles at JoVE.com

In Vitro Reconstitution of the Actin Cytoskeleton Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles

In this manuscript, we demonstrate the experimental techniques to encapsulate the F-actin cytoskeleton into giant unilamellar lipid vesicles (also called liposomes), and the method to form a cortex-biomimicking F-actin layer at the inner leaflet of the liposome membrane.

In Vitro Reconstitution of the Actin Cytoskeleton Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles

The actin cytoskeleton, the principal mechanical machinery in the cell, mediates numerous essential physical cellular activities, including cell ...

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