Polymorphism of Actin Paracrystals

Abstract

In the muscle sarcomere and in certain specialized non-muscle cells actin filaments are organized in bundles or paracrystalline arrays. Structural studies of these naturally occurring filament arrays have been limited to about 3nm resolution, mainly due to inherent disorder of the specimen and/or difficulties with the preparation of these arrays for EM. Skeletal muscle G-actin can be induced to form synthetic filament paracrystals upon addition of non-physiological concentrations of Mg++ (e.g. 50mM) . The structural resolution obtained with these synthetic paracrystals has been of the same order (about 3nm) as that encountered with the naturally occurring filament arrays. Using a new method of induction, we have obtained synthetic paracrystals with two non-muscle actins which reveal structural detail to almost 2nm resolution (Figs. 1,2,3). While the same types of paracrystals were observed with Physarum and Acanthamoeba actin, skeletal muscle actin displayed a different polymorphism under identical conditions.