posted on 2020-12-10, 18:33authored byJunling Chen, Hongru Li, Qiang Wu, Qiuyan Yan, Jiayin Sun, Feng Liang, Yi Liu, Hongda Wang
Protein
tyrosine kinase-7 (PTK7), as an important membrane receptor,
regulates various cellular activities, including cell polarity, movement,
migration, and invasion. Although lots of research studies focused
on revealing its functions from the aspect of the expression of the
gene and protein are present, the relationship between the spatial
distribution at the single-molecule level and the function remains
unclear. Through combining aptamer probe labeling and super-resolution
imaging technology, after verifying the specificity and superiority
of the aptamer probe, a more significant clustering distribution of
PTK7 is found on the MCF10A cell basal membrane than on the apical
membrane, which is thought to be related to their specific functions
on different membranes. By exploring the relationship between the
assembly of PTK7 and lipid rafts, actin cytoskeleton, and carbohydrate
chains on the membrane, the unique distribution of PTK7 on disparate
membranes is revealed to be probably because of the varied dominant
position of these three factors. These findings present the detailed
spatial information of PTK7 and the related potential organization
mechanism on the cell membrane, which will facilitate a better understanding
of the relationship between the molecular assembly and its function,
as well as the overall structure of the cell membrane.