how actin filaments doff their pi cap肌动蛋白丝如何脱π帽.pdfVIP

Synopsis How Actin Filaments Doff Their Pi Cap Caitlin Sedwick* Freelance Science Writer, San Diego, California, United States of America 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 disassembly, and turnover of individual actin subunits–are managed within these filaments. As cellular process- es like motility are regulated by actin polymerization and depolymerization, un- derstanding actin dynamics will provide important insight into these biological processes and how they in turn are Actin filaments are aligned by a microfluidic flow, and observed with light regulated. Toward that end, Antoine microscopy. Their depolymerization reveals their composition, as ADP-actin subunits ´ Je´gou and colleagues examine the details dissociate faster than ADP-Pi-actin subunits. Image credits: Antoine Jegou and Guillaume Romet-Lemonne. of actin filament polymerization and doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001163.g001 depolymerization in their paper published this week in PLoS Biology. the actin-actin bonds and thus lowers the ADP-Pi-actin falls off the barbed end of a It’s well known that individual actin molec