over the past few decades, actin’s presence in the nucleus has been demonstrated. actin is a key protein necessary for different nuclear processes. although actin is well known for its functional role in dynamic behavior of the cytoskeleton, emerging studies are now highlighting new roles for actin. at the present time there is no doubt about the presence of actin in the nucleus. a number of st...

The gene coding for actin from Phaffia rhodozyma was cloned and sequenced. The Phaffia actin gene contains four intervening sequences and the predicted protein consists of 375 amino acids. The structural features of the Phaffia actin introns were studied and compared with actin introns from seven fungi and yeasts with ascomycetous and basidiomycetous affinity. It was shown that the architecture...

Calpain 2 regulates membrane protrusion during cell migration. However, relevant substrates that mediate the effects of calpain on protrusion have not been identified. One potential candidate substrate is the actin binding protein cortactin. Cortactin is a Src substrate that drives actin polymerization by activating the Arp2/3 complex and also stabilizes the cortical actin network. We now provi...

Plant actins are encoded by a gene family. Despite the crucial significance of the actin cytoskeleton for plant structure and function, the importance of individual actin isotypes and their specific roles in various plant tissues or even single cells is rather poorly understood. This review summarizes our current knowledge about the plant actin gene family including its evolution, gene and prot...

Tropomyosin (Tm) is known to be an important gatekeeper of actin function. Tm isoforms are encoded by four genes, and each gene produces several variants by alternative splicing, which have been proposed to play roles in motility, proliferation, and apoptosis. Smooth muscle studies have focused on gizzard smooth muscle, where a heterodimer of Tm from the α-gene (Tmsm-α) and from the β-gene (Tms...

Actins are small globular filaments functioning in cell processes like muscle contraction, and stabilized to the sarcomeric Z- discs by actin binding proteins (actinins). One of the important gene coding for actin binding proteins in fast twitch fibers is alpha- actinin- 3 (ACTN3). In this research, we have conducted a gene profile study investigating the genotype and allele distributions of AC...

schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia is a rare autosomal recessive multisystem disorder characterized by steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome, immunodeficiency, and spondyloepiphy-seal dysplasia. mutations in swi/snf2 related, matrix associated, actin dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily a-like 1 (smarcal1) gene are responsible for the disease. the present report describes, for the first tim...

ALL LIVING CELLS, INCLUDING bacteria, require an intricate actin cytoskeleton for normal homeostasis. Once thought to be a static scaffold functioning solely to maintain cell shape, the actin cytoskeleton is now known to be a dynamic menagerie of proteins controlling such processes as migration and contraction, endocytosis and exocytosis, apoptosis, intracellular trafficking, and signal transdu...