The cellular cortex provides crucial mechanical support and plays critical roles during cell division and migration. The proteins of the ERM family, comprised of ezrin, radixin, and moesin, are central to these processes by linking the plasma membrane to the actin cytoskeleton. To investigate the contributions of the ERM proteins to leukocyte migration, we generated single and triple ERM knockout macrophages. Surprisingly, we found that even in the absence of ERM proteins, macrophages still form the different actin structures promoting cell migration, such as filopodia, lamellipodia, podosomes, and ruffles. Furthermore, we discovered that, unlike every other cell type previously investigated, the single or triple knockout of ERM proteins does not affect macrophage migration in diverse contexts. Finally, we demonstrated that the loss of ERMs in macrophages does not affect the mechanical properties of their cortex. These findings challenge the notion that ERMs are universally essential for cortex mechanics and cell migration and support the notion that the macrophage cortex may have diverged from that of other cells to allow for their uniquely adaptive cortical plasticity.

中文翻译：

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Ezrin、radixin 和 moesin 对于巨噬细胞迁移和细胞皮层力学是可有可无的。


细胞皮层提供关键的机械支撑，并在细胞分裂和迁移过程中起关键作用。ERM 家族的蛋白质由 ezrin、radixin 和 moesin 组成，通过将质膜连接到肌动蛋白细胞骨架，在这些过程中处于核心地位。为了研究 ERM 蛋白对白细胞迁移的贡献，我们生成了单重和三重 ERM 敲除巨噬细胞。令人惊讶的是，我们发现即使没有 ERM 蛋白，巨噬细胞仍然会形成不同的肌动蛋白结构，促进细胞迁移，例如丝状伪足、板状伪足、足小体和褶皱。此外，我们发现，与之前研究的所有其他细胞类型不同，ERM 蛋白的单次或三次敲除不会影响不同情况下的巨噬细胞迁移。最后，我们证明了巨噬细胞中 ERM 的丢失不会影响其皮层的机械性能。这些发现挑战了 ERM 对皮层力学和细胞迁移普遍必不可少的观点，并支持巨噬细胞皮层可能已经与其他细胞的皮层分化以允许其独特的适应性皮层可塑性的观点。