Extraction of accurate cytoskeletal actin velocity distributions from noisy measurements

Dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton is essential for many cellular processes. Tracking the movement of individual actin filaments can in principle shed light on how this complex behavior arises at the molecular level. However, the information that can be extracted from these measurements is often limited by low signal-to-noise ratios. We developed a Bayesian statistical approach to estimate true, underlying velocity distributions from the tracks of individual actin-associated fluorophores with quantified localization uncertainties. We found that the motion of filamentous (F)-actin in fibroblasts and endothelial cells was better described by a statistical jump process than by models in which filaments undergo continuous, diffusive movement. In particular, a model with exponentially distributed jump length- and time-scales recapitulated actin filament velocity distributions measured for the cell cortex, integrin-based adhesions, and stress fibers, suggesting that a common physical model can potentially describe actin filament dynamics in a variety of cellular contexts.