Microenvironment promotes cytoskeleton remodeling and adaptive phenotypic transition

The cytoskeleton includes three main classes of networked filaments behaving as a coherent and complex structure that confers stability to cell shape while serving as sensor of internal/extracellular changes.Microenvironmental stimuli interfere with the non-linear dynamics that govern cytoskeleton architecture,namely by fostering symmetry breakings and transitions across different phenotypic states.Such process induces a wholecoherent adaptive response,involving the reprogramming of biochemical and gene-expression patterns.These characteristics are especially relevant during development,and in those conditions in which a deregulated crosstalk between cells and the stroma is at the core of the pathological process.Therefore,studying how the cytoskeleton can be modified–both pharmacologically and/or through microenvironment-dependent changes–has become a major area of interest in cancer and developmental biology.