Regulation of cellular mechanical stiffness

[gocentral]

Process Regulation of the deformability and viscosity of the cytoplasm which is important for organellar movement within the cell, sensing and responding to mechanical forces, cell morphology and cell division. Cellular mechanical stiffness, in which the cytoskeleton and the link between nucleus and cytoskeleton play an important role, is related to a mechanical etiology of several human diseases. PMID: 18396275 PMID: 17631533

Reported by: marcfeuermann

Original Ticket: geneontology/ontology-requests/6948

[gocentral]

• assigned_to: nobody --> tairtb

Original comment by: mah11

[gocentral]

We suggest that new terms that are children of cytoskeleton organization, GO:0007010, that describe the actual processes that describe the actual processes that the gene products in these papers mediate. Perhaps something similar to 'cytoskeletal anchoring at plasma membrane, GO:0007016.' The term that you suggest describes a phenotype more than a biological process and, whenever possible, we prefer to name and define GO Biological Process terms based on the actual events that are taking place.

Tanya and David

cytoskeletal-nuclear physical interactions

Original comment by: tberardini

[gocentral]

Thank you for your suggestions. I just would like to add few comments: Cellular stiffness is indeed a phenotype, but I think that "Regulation of cellular mechanical stiffness" corresponds rather to a biological process. I proposed this term in order to describe a whole set of proteins like the nesprin isoforms and interacting proteins which link the nuclear envelope to the cytoskeleton, but also the nucleoskeleton (lamins) to the nuclear envelope and the cytoskeleton to other organelles like mitochondria. They form a complex network between the cytoskeleton and many (if not all) of the organelles of the cell and are not just limited to the nucleus. This is why I was looking for a more general term (and which existed in literature). However, after reading your suggestions and thinking again about it, I agree that we could indeed create more "concrete" terms like "cytoskeletal anchoring at plasma membrane, GO:0007016" as you proposed. However this would mean that we will have to create one term for each particular link performed by these proteins within the cell (nucleaskeleton-nuclear envelope, cytoskeleton-nuclear envelope, cytoskeleton-mitochondria, ...) in addition to those which already exist.. I'm still annotating these proteins for Swiss-Prot and I will probably propose some more terms in the near future.

Original comment by: marcfeuermann

[gocentral]

Thanks for your response.

If given a choice between adding a biological process term that really is a description of the regulation of a biological quality (like cellular mechanical stiffness) and a process term that describes the underlying biology, we would opt for the latter.

>However this would mean that we will have to create one term for each >particular link performed by these proteins within the cell

Not a problem!

We'd be happy to create all of these terms as you come across cases in which to use them as they do a much better job of describing the underlying biology that the 'regulation' term that was originally suggested.

In the meantime, would a new term called 'cytoskeletal anchoring at nucleus' suffice for your current gene?

Proposed definition: Process by which cytoskeletal filaments are directly or indirectly linked to the nucleus.

We could even make it 'cytoskeletal anchoring at nuclear membrane' if that was preferable.

Let me know.

Thanks,

Tanya

Original comment by: tberardini

[gocentral]

Hi Tanya,

Okay, lets do like that. Anyway I would prefer "cytoskeletal anchoring at nuclear membrane" since I will also need the inner nuclear counterpart "nucleoskeleton anchoring at nuclear membrane". I will continue my annotations and send you more terms and definitions soon. Thank you, Marc.

Original comment by: marcfeuermann

[gocentral]

Added:

GO:0090286, cytoskeletal anchoring at nuclear membrane

Should I also add 'nucleoskeleton anchoring at nuclear membrane' at this point?

Original comment by: tberardini

[gocentral]

Thanks a lot for the integration of the term. And yes, you can also add 'nucleoskeleton anchoring at nuclear membrane'. Marc.

Original comment by: marcfeuermann

[gocentral]

Added:

GO:0090292, nuclear matrix anchoring at nuclear membrane (exact synonym: nucleoskeleton anchoring at nuclear membrane)

In GO cellular component, the term is 'nuclear matrix' (exact synonym: nucleoskeleton) so I made it consistent with that.

Original comment by: tberardini

[gocentral]

• status: open --> closed-accepted

Original comment by: tberardini