Witzel, PatrickPatrickWitzelGötz, MariaMariaGötzLanoiselée, YannYannLanoiseléeFranosch, ThomasThomasFranoschGrebenkov, Denis S.Denis S.GrebenkovHeinrich, DorisDorisHeinrich2022-03-052022-03-052019https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/25836710.1016/j.bpj.2019.06.009A living cell's interior is one of the most complex and intrinsically dynamic systems, providing an elaborate interplay between cytosolic crowding and ATP-driven motion that controls cellular functionality. Here, we investigated two distinct fundamental features of the merely passive, non-biomotor-shuttled material transport within the cytoplasm of Dictyostelium discoideum cells: the anomalous non-linear scaling of the mean-squared displacement of a 150-nm-diameter particle and non-Gaussian distribution of increments. Relying on single-particle tracking data of 320,000 data points, we performed a systematic analysis of four possible origins for non-Gaussian transport: 1) sample-based variability, 2) rarely occurring strong motion events, 3) ergodicity breaking/aging, and 4) spatiotemporal heterogeneities of the intracellular medium. After excluding the first three reasons, we investigated the remaining hypothesis of a heterogeneous cytoplasm as cause for non-Gaussian transport. A, to our knowledge, novel fit model with randomly distributed diffusivities implementing medium heterogeneities suits the experimental data. Strikingly, the non-Gaussian feature is independent of the cytoskeleton condition and lag time. This reveals that efficiency and consistency of passive intracellular transport and the related anomalous scaling of the mean-squared displacement are regulated by cytoskeleton components, whereas cytoplasmic heterogeneities are responsible for the generic, non-Gaussian distribution of increments.encytoskeleton componentcytoplasmic heterogeneitiescellular functionality666571journal article