Studies over the past decade have begun to shed light on the molecular mechanisms by which this powerful machine controls the polymerization, organization and recycling of actin-filament networks ...

Albina Orlova, Alexander Shvetsov, Vitold E. Galkin, Dmitry S. Kudryashov, Peter A. Rubenstein, Edward H. Egelman, Emil Reisler, David J. DeRosier, Actin-Destabilizing Factors Disrupt Filaments by ...

Cell 'bones' mystery solved with supercomputers XSEDE Stampede2 simulates polarized elongation of actin filaments Date: January 27, 2021 Source: University of Texas at Austin, Texas Advanced ...

In their important manuscript, Gangadharan, Kober and Rice focus on how Stu2/XMAP215-family microtubule polymerases use their TOG domains to catalytically promote microtubule growth, testing whether ...

How can a nanometer-scale protein generate and transmit forces to control cell shape changes across micrometer-scale distances? A crawling cell pushes its plasma membrane forward. The protein is actin ...

FMNL2 (green) induces the polymerization of actin filaments (white) at the vesicle, propelling it forward. The vesicle itself is only about 200 nanometers in diameter. view more ...

Initiation of actin polymerization in cells requires nucleation factors. Here we describe an actin-binding protein, leiomodin, that acted as a strong filament nucleator in muscle cells. Leiomodin ...

However, the organization of actin filaments in target cells remains poorly explored. This gave us impulse to investigate what happens with the cytoskeleton of cancer cells in contact with NK cells.' ...

Actin can be found in two forms, monomeric (G-actin) and filamentous (F-actin). The latter forms filaments that are essential for maintaining cell structure and many other functions.

image: Actin forms filaments in cells and plays essential roles in multiple cellular functions including cell motility, cell division, and gene expression (left). By monitoring the polymerization ...

"We observed that ANGPTL4-loaded vesicles are conveyed to the periphery of the cell by means of dynamic and localized polymerization of actin filaments," says Grosse, who is a member of the ...