Addition Of Actin Monomers Research Articles

Actin filament capping protein from bovine brain.

An actin filament capping protein has been purified from bovine brain. The protein has a native mol. wt. of 63 kilodaltons (kd) with subunits of 36 kd and 31 kd and is globular in shape. It nucleates actin polymerization, inhibits filament elongation and filament interactions, and decreases the steady state viscosity of F-actin in substoichiometric amounts (molar ration 1:1000). In addition, the protein increases the critical concentration for actin polymerization. Neither Ca2+ nor calmodulin affects it action. All these effects can be explained by the binding of the protein to the 'barbed' end of actin filaments leading to a blockade of actin monomer addition at the preferred growing end. This is directly demonstrated by electron microscopy. Concerning the polypeptide composition, Ca2+-independence, mode, and stoichiometry of actin interaction, the protein is similar to the capping protein, previously isolated from Acanthamoeba.

Effect of fragmin on actin polymerization: evidence for enhancement of nucleation and capping of the barbed end.

As reported previously, fragmin isolated from Physarum plasmodia restricts the polymerization of actin to produce short F-actin filaments in the presence of Ca2+ ions. Here it is shown that when actin is polymerized at low concentrations of salts, fragmin increases the critical concentration of actin for polymerization. This effect of fragmin on the critical concentration is independent of the molar ratio of fragmin to actin. The addition of actin monomers onto heavy meromyosin-decorated F-actin fragments treated with fragmin occurs unidirectionally at the pointed end of each fragment. These results suggest that fragmin binds to the barbed ends of F-actin filaments and inhibits association and dissociation of actin monomers at this end. Fragmin accelerates the initial stage of polymerization of actin. When a constant amount of G-actin is polymerized in the presence of small amounts of fragmin, the inverse of the half-polymerization time increases in proportion to the square root of the amount of fragmin added. This means that fragmin acts as a potent promoter of the nucleation step in actin polymerization. Both functions of fragmin--promotion of nucleation and capping at the barbed end of F-actin--require micromolar concentrations of Ca2+.

Isolation of calcium-dependent platelet proteins that interact with actin

Low Ca 2+ extracts of platelets rapidly form an actin gel when warmed to 25°C. The addition of Ca 2+ has three effects. At Ca EGTA = 0.4 , the gel begins to contract. Increasing the Ca 2+ concentration increases the rate of contraction and reduces the amount of actomyosin gel. Between Ca EGTA = 0.4 and 0.5, a protease is activated that selectively degrades polypeptides with molecular weight greater than the myosin heavy chain. At Ca EGTA = 1 , about 70% of the total actin is nonsedimentable. Addition of excess EGTA produces the rapid formation of an actomyosin gel, which is not readily solubilized by re-addition of calcium. Using DNAase I-Sepharose chromatography, we have isolated a protein fraction whose binding to actin is Ca 2+-dependent. This fraction contains a major polypeptide with a molecular weight of 90,000. This fraction increases the rate of development of high shear viscosity, but lowers the final value if Ca 2+ is present. This decrease in viscosity is due to the generation of shorter filaments. In the presence of Ca 2+, this protein(s) selectively blocks the addition of actin monomers to the barbed end of glutaraldehyde-fixed S1-decorated actin fragments and will nucleate assembly of filaments. We speculate that this protein(s) may serve as a Ca 2+-dependent nucleation site in situ.

Actin filaments elongate from their membrane-associated ends.

In limulus sperm an actin filament bundle 55 mum in length extends from the acrosomal vacuole membrane through a canal in the nucleus and then coils in a regular fashion around the base of the nucleus. The bundle expands systematically from 15 filaments near the acrosomal vacuole to 85 filaments at the basal end. Thin sections of sperm fixed during stages in spermatid maturation reveal that the filament bundle begins to assemble on dense material attached to the acrosomal vacuole membrane. In micrographs fo these early stages in maturation, short bundles are seen extending posteriorly from the dense material. The significance is that these short, developing bundles have about 85 filaments, suggesting that the 85-filament end of the bundle is assembled first. By using filament bundles isolated and incubated in vitro with G actin from muscle, we can determine the end "preferred" for addition of actin monomers during polymerization. The end that would be associated with the acrosomal vacuole membrane, a membrane destined to be continuous with the plasma membrane, is preferred about 10 times over the other, thicker end. Decoration of the newly polymerized portions of the filament bundle with subfragment 1 of myosin reveals that the arrowheads point away from the acrosomal vacuole membrane, as is true of other actin filament bundles attached to membranes. From these observations we conclude that the bundle is nucleated from the dense material associated with the acrosomal vacuole and that monomers are added to the membrane-associated end. As monomers are added at the dense material, the thick first-made end of the filament bundle is pushed down through the nucleus where, upon reaching the base of the nucleus, it coils up. Tapering is brought about by the capping of the peripheral filaments in the bundle.

Mechanism of action of cytochalasin B on actin

Substoichiometric cytochalasin B (CB) inhibits both the rate of actin polymerization and the interaction of actin filaments in solution. The polymerization rate is reduced by inhibition of actin monomer addition to the “barbed” end of the filaments where monomers normally add more rapidly. 2 μM CB reduces the polymerization rate by up to 90%, but has little effect on the rate of monomer addition at the slow (“pointed”) end of the filaments and no effect on the rate of filament annealing. Under most ionic conditions tested, 2 μM CB reduces the steady state high shear viscosity by 10–20% and increases the steady state monomer concentration by a factor of 2.5 or less. In addition to the effects on the polymerization process, 2 μM CB strongly reduces the low shear viscosity of actin filaments alone and actin filaments cross-linked by a variety of macromolecules. This may be due to inhibition of actin filament-filament interactions which normally contribute to network formation. Since the inhibition of monomer addition and of actin filament network formation have approximately the same CB concentration dependence, a common CB binding site, probably the barbed end of the filament, may be responsible for both effects.

Evidence for biased bidirectional polymerization of actin filaments using heavy meromyosin prepared by an improved method.

Isolated actin filaments decorated with HMM can grow by addition of actin monomers to either end, although there is a bias toward addition at the end which is normally attached to the Z line in striated muscle.