Coordinated efforts of different actin filament populations are needed for optimal cell wound repair

Cells are subjected to a barrage of daily insults that often lead to their cortices being ripped open and requiring immediate repair. An important component of the cell’s repair response is the formation of an actomyosin ring at the wound periphery to mediate its closure. Here we show that inhibition of myosin or the linear actin nucleation factors Diaphanous and/or dishevelled associated activator of morphogenesis results in a disrupted contractile apparatus and delayed wound closure. We also show that the branched actin nucleators WASp and SCAR function nonredundantly as scaffolds to assemble and maintain this contractile actomyosin cable. Removing branched actin leads to the formation of smaller circular actin–myosin structures at the cell cortex and to slow wound closure. Removing linear and branched actin simultaneously results in failed wound closure. Surprisingly, removal of branched actin and myosin results in the formation of parallel linear F-actin filaments that undergo a chiral swirling movement to close the wound, uncovering a new mechanism of cell wound closure. Taken together, we demonstrate the roles of different actin substructures that are required for optimal actomyosin ring formation and the extraordinary resilience of the cell to undergo wound repair when it is unable to form different subsets of these substructures.