The binding between F-actin and myosin has been studied by analyzing the amount of radioactively labelled (by means of 14C-NEM) F-actin and myosin in the formed unsoluble actomyosin pellet after centrifugation of the reaction mixture. In the absence of ATP, the amount of actin bound to myosin varies, depending on the amounts of actin and myosin present, between 0.18 mg actin/mg myosin (2 actin ...

The cytoskeletal protein actin (or one of its relatives) is found in almost all life forms. Yet, despite its ubiquity, there are still some fundamental things about its structure and function that are not well understood. For example, we know that monomeric actin subunits (called G-actin) polymerize into filaments (F-actin), but it’s still unclear how actin dynamics–filament assembly and disass...

Actin filaments are major determinants of cell shape, motility and adhesion, which control important biological processes including embryonic development and wound healing. These processes are associated with changes in actin assembly, which is regulated by controlling the balance between polymerized and non-polymerized actin. To maintain a significant pool of non-polymerized actin, mechanism(s...

Fimbrin belongs to a superfamily of actin cross-linking proteins that share a conserved 27-kD actin-binding domain. This domain contains a tandem duplication of a sequence that is homologous to calponin. Calponin homology (CH) domains not only cross-link actin filaments into bundles and networks, but they also bind intermediate filaments and some signal transduction proteins to the actin cytosk...

• Twinfilin binds CP via TWtail that has sequence similarity to CARMIL CPI. Here we present the crystal structure of in complex with TWtail. and CPI restrict distinct conformations. Unlike CPI, forms a stable ternary V-1. Our data suggest acts cooperatively V-1 destabilize F-actin. is conserved actin regulator interacts capping protein (CP) C terminus residues (TWtail) exhibits interaction (CPI...

Actin cytoskeleton networks generate local topological signatures due to the natural variations in number, size, and shape of holes networks. Persistent homology is a method that explores these properties data summarizes them as persistence diagrams. In this work, we analyze classify simulated actin filament by transforming into diagrams whose variability quantified via Bayesian framework on sp...

The actin cytoskeleton maintains the cellular architecture and mediates cell movements. To explore actin cytoskeletal dynamics, the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was fused to human &bgr ;-actin. The fusion protein was incorporated into actin fibers which became depolymerized upon cytochalasin B treatment. This functional EGFP-actin construct enabled observation of the actin cytoskel...

We have investigated the molecular evolution of plant and nonplant actin genes comparing nucleotide and amino acid sequences of 20 actin genes. Nucleotide changes resulting in amino acid substitutions (replacement substitutions) ranged from 3-7% for all pairwise comparisons of animal actin genes with the following exceptions. Comparisons between higher animal muscle actin gene sequences and com...

Disruption of the actin cytoskeleton in proximal tubule cells is a key pathophysiological factor in acute renal failure. To investigate dynamic alterations of the actin cytoskeleton in live proximal tubule cells, LLC-PK(10) cells were transfected with an enhanced yellow fluorescence protein (EYFP)-actin construct, and a clone with stable EYFP-actin expression was established. Confluent live cel...

Numerous studies have described the F-actin cytoskeleton; however, little information relevant to G-actin is available. The actin pools of bovine aortic endothelial cells were examined using in situ and in vitro conditions and fluorescent probes for G-(deoxyribonuclease I, 0.3 microM) or F-actin (phalloidin, 0.2 microM). Cells in situ displayed a diffuse G-actin distribution, while F-actin was ...