Organelles in metabolism and stress responses

Ferguson, Shawn M.; Henne, W. Mike

Cellular responses to plasma membrane stress were investigated in two talks. Caveolae are plasma membrane invaginations with a proposed role in buffering changes in plasma membrane tension. However, there is a lack of quantitative studies that define the process of caveolae-mediated membrane deformation. Shiro Suetsugu (Nara Institute of Science and Technology) presented a superresolution microscopy analysis of caveolae that demonstrated shifts of caveolae from invaginated to flattened shapes. Nicholas Davenport (recipient of the MBoC Paper of the Year Award for research performed as a graduate student in the Bement lab, University of Wisconsin) focused on mechanisms of plasma membrane repair in Xenopus oocytes. He revealed direct visual evidence of membrane patching, wherein intracellular compartments fuse with each other and the plasma membrane to reestablish plasma membrane integrity. His results furthermore demonstrated that formation of the membrane patch is associated with spatial patterning of lipids, ions, and proteins.