In these studies, skeletal muscle actin has been compared with non-muscle, cytoplasmic actin from bovine brain. The studies include the polymerization and aggregate formation properties of the actins in response to elevated salt concentrations and in resp...

... 17 Actg2 Actin gamma 2 smooth muscle enteric Acta1 Actin alpha 1 skeletal muscle Acta2 Actin alpha 2 smooth muscle aorta Myh11 Myosin heavy ...

... reported (Sawtell and Lessard, 1989). During chicken skeletal muscle development, nonmuscle (β and γ) and cardiac (α) actins ... 1) increased expression of sarcomeric α-actins during muscle development (S...

... be useful tools to investigate the mechanisms of muscle development in ascidian adults. The evolution of chordate actin ... expression patters of muscle actin genes during adult muscle development are sti...

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has long been a useful model organism for muscle research. Its body wall muscle is obliquely striated muscle and exhibits structural similarities with vertebrate striated muscle. Actin is the core component of the muscle thin filaments, ...

In striated muscle, the actin cytoskeleton is differentiated into myofibrils. Actin and myosin filaments are organized in sarcomeres and specialized for producing contractile forces. Regular arrangement of actin filaments with uniform length and polarity is critical for the contractile function. However, the ...

In these studies, skeletal muscle actin has been compared with non-muscle, cytoplasmic actin from bovine brain. The studies include the polymerization and aggregate formation properties of the actins in response to elevated salt concentrations and in response to exposure to various ...

A rare case of skin metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosed with an aid of immunohistochemical stainings of hepatocyte paraffin 1 and a-fetoprotein is reported in this study. An 86-year-old Japanese man was admitted to our hospital due to cutaneous mass in the right chest. An incisional biopsy was performed, which showed proliferation of malignant cells with eosinophilic or clear ...

ProblemTo describe immunohistochemical features encountered in ovarian fibrothecoma with correlation to clinical presentation and surgical management.Method of studyA female age 75 presented for evaluation of melena. The patient reported total abdominal hysterectomy and removal of both ovaries 40 years earlier.ResultsCA-125 was normal and there was no evidence of hyperestrogen effect. Pelvic CT ...

Interaction of glycolytic enzymes with F-actin is suggested to be a mechanism for compartmentation of the glycolytic pathway. Earlier work demonstrates that muscle F-actin strongly binds glycolytic enzymes, allowing for the general conclusion that �actin binds enzymes�, which may be a generalized phenomenon. By ...

1 ACTA1: actin, alpha 1, skeletal muscle ACTA2: actin, alpha 2, smooth muscle, aorta ACTG1: actin, gamma 1 ACVR1: activin A receptor, type I ACVRL1: activin A receptor...

... cytoskeleton organization and biogenesis, muscle development cytoskeleton organization and biogenesis, actin polymerization ...

Actin purified from mouse fibroblasts by sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis was used as antigen to obtain an antibody in rabbits. The elicited antibody was shown to be specific for actin as judged by immunodiffusion and complement fixation against partially purified mouse fibroblast actin and highly purified chicken ...

The NH2-terminal peptide of skeletal muscle ? -actin (S? N peptide), which contains a primary sequence unique to this actin isozyme, was used to prepare an isozyme-specific peptide antibody. S? N peptide was purified from chicken breast muscle actin by preparative reverse-phase HPLC and was ...

We have developed a quantitative antibody-based assay to measure the content of skeletal muscle alpha-actin relative to cardiac alpha-actin. We found 21 +/- 2% skeletal muscle alpha-actin content in normal heart muscle of adult man and mouse. In end stage failing heart 53 ...

Actin is rarely found as a single strand, rather, it aggregates with other actin proteins to form filaments. These filaments give strength and structure to cells. Actin composes approximately one fifth of all protein in a muscle cell. This is due to the dynamic nature of actin, as it is able to ...

Antisera against actins from chicken gizzard smooth muscle and ascaris body wall were prepared in rabbits. Immunological cross-reactivity of the antisera with actins of several different species was demonstrated by precipitation reactions in agarose gels and by immunofluorescence studies. The antisera were also reactive with ...

... Corporate Author : ARMY RESEARCH INST OF ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE NATICK MA. ... with actin (skeletal, smooth, or non-muscle cell) at a ...

It is well documented that muscle contraction results from cyclic rotations of actin-bound myosin cross-bridges. The role of actin is hypothesized to be limited to accelerating phosphate release from myosin and to serving as a rigid substrate for cross-bridge rotations. To test this hypothesis, we have measured ...

The authors determined the actin isotypes encoded by 30 actin cDNA clones previously isolated from an adult human muscle cDNA library. Using 3' untranslated region probes, derived from ..cap alpha.. skeletal, ..beta..- and ..gamma..-actin cDNAs and from an ..cap alpha..-cardiac actin ...

of extraocular muscle in dystrophinopathy is lost in mice lacking utrophin and dystrophin. J Cell Sci 111 (Pt 13Skeletal Muscle-Specific Ablation of ccyto-Actin Does Not Exacerbate the mdx Phenotype Kurt W-deficient skeletal muscle and hypothesized that increased ccyto-actin expression may ...

a traction.contractile actin cytoskeleton. C. elegans eggs are ovoid cells that become polarized along the posterior cortex? Several lines of evidence have implicated the actin cytoskeleton. First, examination investigated. In Drosophila, non- consistent with a link to the actin cytoskeleton. Munro muscle myosin II

... ubiquitous actins, such as K+ or Mg2+-dependent polymerization into filaments, binding with muscle heavy meromyosin to ... have a potent inhibitory activity for Tetrahymena actin polymerization, but have ...

The effect of phalloidin on filaments polymerized from ADP-actin monomers of the heart muscle was investigated with differential scanning calorimetry. Heart muscle contains ?-skeletal and ?-cardiac actin isoforms. In the absence of phalloidin the melting temperature was 55�C for the ?-cardiac ...

Inhibition of DNase I activity has been used as an assay to purify actin from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast actin). The final fraction, obtained after a 300-fold purification, is approximately 97% pure as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis. Like rabbit skeletal muscle actin, yeast ...

Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) is a key regulator of smooth muscle contraction. The most conspicuous form of regulation is achieved by phosphorylation of the myosin light chain, allowing myosin to interact with actin. This interaction is regulated by actin-binding proteins that modulate actin filaments. In this ...

The models of a thin filament based on different structures of G-actin and the modes of their packing into helical structure have been compared with the experimental data obtained on thin bundles of skeletal muscle fibres in the relaxed state. The contribution of the main components of the thin filament to the intensity of the actin ...

It is well known that certain connective tissue cells (viz., dermal fibroblasts) can express the gene for a muscle actin--alpha-smooth muscle actin--and can contract. This process contributes to skin wound closure and is responsible for Dupuytren's contracture. The objective of this study was to determine if human ...

Crude protein extracts of Uromyces appendiculatus contain a polypeptide that resembles actin in several ways. This protein eluates from DEAE-cellulose with concentrations of KCl known to release actin of other species from the cation. The polypeptide is recognized by polyclonal antibodies directed to sodium dodecyl sulfate-denatured ...

Actin has been identified and purified partially from trophozoites of Entamoeba histolytica HMI-IMSS by a procedure that minimizes proteolysis. In cellular extracts, Entamoeba actin would copolymerize with muscle actin, but would not bind to DNase I or form microfilaments. Fractionation of the extracts by ...

A simple description of myosin-actin interactions is presented. Four parameters are defined: the probability, time, and energy of a myosin reaction, and a compression factor describing other muscle properties.

Resting human platelets contain ?0.3 mM unpolymerized actin. When freshly drawn and washed platelets are treated with saponin, 85-90% of the unpolymerized actin diffuses out. Analysis by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under nondenaturing conditions shows that the bulk of this unpolymerized actin migrates with a higher mobility than ...

Actin was purified from calf brains by chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex and hydroxylapatite. The protein was then subjected to amino acid sequence analysis by isolating and sequencing its cyanogen bromide peptides. CB-1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 12 correspond to equivalent segments of rabbit skeletal muscle actin, while substitutions ...

Actin is the most abundant protein in most eukaryotic cells. It is highly conserved and participates in more protein-protein interactions than any known protein. These properties, along with its ability to transition between monomeric (G-actin) and filamentous (F-actin) states under the control of nucleotide hydrolysis, ions, and a ...

Dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton plays an essential role in the migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells. It has been suggested that actin remodeling may also play an important functional role in nonmigrating, nonproliferating differentiated vascular smooth muscle (dVSM). In the ...

Dynamic remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton plays an essential role in the migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells. It has been suggested that actin remodeling may also play an important functional role in nonmigrating, nonproliferating differentiated vascular smooth muscle (dVSM). In the ...

We generated transgenic mice that overexpressed gamma-(cyto) actin 2000-fold above wild-type levels in skeletal muscle. gamma-(cyto) actin comprised 40% of total actin in transgenic skeletal muscle, with a concomitant 40% decrease in alpha-actin. Surprisingly, transgenic ...

JI, Davies KE. The sparing of extraocular muscle in dystrophinop- athy is lost in mice lacking that cytoplasmic c-actin (ccyto-actin) is dramatically elevated in striated muscle of dystrophin-deficient mdx mice elevated in muscle from a-sarcoglycan null mice, but not in several other dystrophic ...

We have used two in vitro motility assays to study the relative movement of actin and myosin from turkey gizzards (smooth muscle) and human platelets. In the Nitella-based in vitro motility assay, myosin-coated polymer beads move over a fixed substratum of actin bundles derived from dissection of the alga, Nitella, whereas in the ...

We report a female newborn, diagnosed with fetal akinesia in utero, who died one hour after birth. Post-mortem muscle biopsy demonstrated actin-filament myopathy based on immunolabelling for sarcomeric actin, and large areas of filaments, without rod formation, ultrastructurally. Analysis of DNA extracted from the ...

We investigated the targeting of the {gamma}-actin isoform in skeletal myofibers. For this purpose we used expression vectors to produce green fluorescent protein (GFP-) as well as myc-tagged {gamma}-actin in rat flexor digitorum brevis myofibers. We found that the {gamma}-actin fusion proteins accumulated into Z discs but not beneath ...

We employed budding yeast and skeletal muscle actin to examine the contribution of the actin isoform to myosin motor function. While yeast and muscle actin are highly homologous, they exhibit different charge density at their N-termini (a proposed myosin-binding interface). ...

The budding yeast formins, Bnr1 and Bni1, behave very differently with respect to their interactions with muscle actin. However, the mechanisms underlying these differences are unclear, and these formins do not interact with muscle actin in vivo. We use yeast wild type and mutant actins to ...

Wild-type actin and a mutant actin were isolated from yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and the polymerization properties were examined at pH 8.0 and 20 degrees C. The polymerization reaction was followed either by an increase in pyrene-labeled actin fluorescence or by a decrease in intrinsic fluorescence in the absence of ...

The actin cytoskeleton is regulated by a variety of actin-binding proteins including those constituting the tropomyosin family. Tropomyosins are coiled-coil dimers that bind along the length of actin filaments. In muscles, tropomyosin regulates the interaction of actin-containing thin filaments ...

Addition of spectrin to spin-labelled actin shows that the mode of interaction of these two proteins depends strongly on whether spectrin and actin are polymerized before mixing. Spectrin does not affect the EPR spectrum of spin-labelled G- or F-actin in the absence of calcium, and addition of calcium-polymerized spectrin to ...

... muscle differentiation for some time (Obinata, 1993). During muscle development, actin isoforms switch from non-muscle (β, γ) ... further examined the expression of α-Arp1 during muscle development using ...

Spin labels attached to rabbit muscle actin became more immobilized upon conversion of actin from the G state to the F state with 50 mM KCl. Titration of G-actin with MgCl/sub 2/ produced F-actin-like EPR spectra between 2 and 5 mM, and F-actin filaments by electron ...

Skeletal and cardiac muscle contains actin isoforms that vary by two juxtaposed amino acids and two amino acid substitutions (Met299Leu and Ser358Thr). This close sequence homology does not allow cardiac and skeletal actin isoforms to be resolved in traditional SDS-PAGE analysis as the molecular weights (Deltamass = 32 Da) are not ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the contribution of bone marrow-derived cells to oral mucosa wounds and skin wounds. BACKGROUND: Bone marrow-derived cells are known to contribute to wound healing, and are able to differentiate in many different tissue-specific cell types. As wound healing in oral mucosa generally proceeds faster and with less scarring than in skin, we compared the bone marrow ...

One important aspect of oxidative stress is chemical modification of lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. Copper has been shown to be one of the agents causing oxidative stress. In muscles copper binds to Cys-374 of the actin monomer and catalyzes interchain S-S bond formation in F-actin. The aim of the present work was to study the ...

Ruthenium red was found to inhibit actin-activated myosin Mg(2+)-ATPase in smooth muscle and to bind to myosin heavy chain, but not to F-actin. The inhibition by Ruthenium red of actin-activated Mg(2+)-ATPase was of the competitive type with respect to actin (Ki 4.4 microM) and of the ...

Liposomes encapsulating actin filaments were prepared by swelling at 0 degrees C lipid film consisting of a mixture of dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine and cardiolipin (equal amounts by weight) in 100 microM rabbit skeletal muscle actin and 0.5 mM CaCl2 followed by polymerization of actin at 30 degrees C. Liposomes ...

We have used transient phosphorescence anisotropy (TPA) to detect changes in actin structural dynamics associated with oxidative inhibition of muscle contraction. Contractility of skinned rabbit psoas muscle fibers was inhibited by treatment with 50 mM H 2O 2, which induced oxidative modifications in the myosin head and in ...

An angiogenin binding protein isolated previously from endothelial cells has been shown to be a member of the actin family. Calf pulmonary artery endothelial (CPAE) cells were investigated for the presence of surface actin by immunoblotting of isolated surface proteins and by immunofluorescence. CPAE cell surface proteins were isolated by selective apical ...

Mutations in the gene encoding skeletal muscle alpha-actin (ACTA1) account for approx. 20% of patients with the muscular disorder nemaline myopathy. Nemaline myopathy is a muscular wasting disease similar to muscular dystrophy, but distinguished by deposits of actin and actin-associated proteins near the z-line of ...

Mutations in the gene encoding alpha skeletal muscle actin (ACTA1) account for around 20% of patients with the muscular disorder nemaline myopathy. Nemaline myopathy is a muscular wasting disease similar to muscular dystrophy, but distinguished by deposits of actin and actin-associated proteins near the z-line of ...

Lobster muscles express a diverse array of myofibrillar protein isoforms. Three fiber types (fast, slow-twitch or S1, and slow-tonic or S2) differ qualitatively and quantitatively in myosin heavy and light chains, troponin-T, -I, and -C, paramyosin, and tropomyosin variants. However, little is known about the diversity of actin isoforms present in ...

)-57-47-70-83 Running title: DAPC in platelet actin-cytoskeleton structures. Keywords: Actin structures, adhesion, cytoskeleton, dystrophin- associated protein complexes, platelet activation. This article is not an exact copy and dystrophins are minor actin-binding proteins present in muscle and ...

We previously documented a ten-fold increase in ?_cyto-actin expression in dystrophin-deficient skeletal muscle and hypothesized that increased ?_cyto-actin expression may participate in an adaptive cytoskeletal remodeling response. To explore whether increased ...

The postnatal expression profiles of alpha-sarcomeric actin transcripts and protein are quantified in mouse striated muscles from birth to postnatal day 56 by Northern and Western blot analyses. alpha-Cardiac actin (alpha-CA) transcripts transiently increase between 12 and 21 days after birth in the quadriceps ...

Oxidovanadium(IV), a cationic species (VO(2+)) of vanadium(IV), binds to several proteins, including actin. Upon titration with oxidovanadium(IV), approximately 100% quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of monomeric actin purified from rabbit skeletal muscle (G-actin) was observed, with a V(50) of 131 ?M, ...

... cavernosum penis. In addition, a pair of α-smooth muscle actin positive muscles was located bilaterally to the ... Santa Cruz) as a secondary antibody. Presence of smooth muscles in the suncus external ge...

The present disclosure provides evidence that actin degradation, in particular to produce a proteolytic fragment of about 14 kDa, is an important marker of muscle protein wasting. Muscle biopsy samples from a patient suffering from, susceptible to, or tre...

... procedures Glycerinated muscles were prepared by immersing stretched rabbit psoas and chicken pectoralis muscles in 50% glycerol containing ... ATP-induced contraction of glycerinated muscle fibers from ...

Actins are the major constituent of the cytoskeleton. In this report we present several lines of evidence that muscle actin genes are transcribed by nuclear isoform of mitochondrial RNA polymerase (spRNAP-IV) whereas the non-muscle actin genes are transcribed by the conventional RNA polymerase ...

Skeletal muscle alpha-actin is the principal protein component of the adult skeletal muscle thin filament. The interaction between skeletal muscle alpha-actin and the various myosin heavy chain proteins in the different muscle fibre types generates the force of ...

Skeletal muscle alpha-actin (ACTA1) is the major actin in postnatal skeletal muscle. Mutations of ACTA1 cause mostly fatal congenital myopathies. Cardiac alpha-actin (ACTC) is the major striated actin in adult heart and fetal skeletal muscle. It is ...

Myosin V, also known as A0149, is a processive, non-muscle actin-based motor protein that undergoes multiple catalytic cycles and can move in large steps through the actin filament.

... into cultured myogenic cells by a microinjection method. Stress fibers in C2 myoblasts were disrupted soon after microinjection ... myofibrils. In myoblasts, actin filaments are detectable as stress fiber...

Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) has been purified from various muscles as an enzyme to phosphorylate myosin light chains. While the regulatory role of smooth muscle MLCK is well understood, the role of skeletal muscle MLCK in the regulation of contraction has not been fully characterized. Such characterization of skeletal ...

Under a number of stress or pathological conditions, actin and actin depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin form rod-like structures that contain abnormal bundles of actin filaments that are heavily decorated with ADF/cofilin. However, the mechanism of actin rod formation and the physiological role of ...

Using polarized UV fluorescent microscopy it has been shown that phallotoxins (phalloidin-sulfone, phalloidin-sulfoxide-B, phalloidin-sulfoxide-A and dithio-phalloidin) cause an increase in tryptophan fluorescence anisotropy of F-actin myofilaments in myosin-free ghost muscle fibres of rabbit. The results obtained are considered to be evidence of ...

is that a superfamily of actin-bind- ing proteins containing a calponin homology (CH) domain may play an important. Abbreviations used in this paper: ABD, actin-binding domain; CH, calponin homology; F-actin, filamentous actin tetramers and calponin in smooth muscle cells. They pro- posed the ...

Tardigrades, also known as water bears, have somatic muscle fibers that are responsible for movement of their body and legs. These muscle fibers contain thin and thick filaments in a non-striated pattern. However, the regulatory mechanism of muscle contraction in tardigrades is unknown. In the absence of extensive molecular and genomic ...

Changes in cell morphology and rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton are common features accompanying cell transformation induced by various oncogenes. In this study, we show that promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein (PLZF) binds to the promoter of smooth muscle ?-actin, reducing mRNA and protein levels encoded by this gene ...

Changes in cell morphology and rearrangements of the actin cytoskeleton are common features accompanying cell transformation induced by various oncogenes. In this study, we show that promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein (PLZF) binds to the promoter of smooth muscle ?-actin, reducing mRNA and protein levels encoded by this gene ...

Recombinant phages that carry the human smooth muscle (enteric type) {gamma}-actin gene were isolated from human genomic DNA libraries. The amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence matches those of cDNAs but differs from the protein sequence previously reported at one amino acid position, codon 359. The gene containing one 5{prime} ...

Muscle contraction results from the force generated between the thin filament protein actin and the thick filament protein myosin, which causes the thick and thin muscle filaments to slide past each other. There are skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, smooth muscle and ...

Two nuclear factors bind to the same site in the chicken skeletal actin promoter. Mutations in the footprint sequence which eliminate detectable binding decrease expression in transfected skeletal muscle cells by a factor of 25 to 50 and do not elevate the flow expression in nonmuscle cells. These results show that the factor-binding site contributes to ...

We have studied a cohort of nemaline myopathy (NM) patients with mutations in the muscle alpha-skeletal actin gene (ACTA1). Immunoblot analysis of patient muscle demonstrates increased gamma-filamin, myotilin, desmin and alpha-actinin in many NM patients, consistent with accumulation of Z line-derived nemaline bodies. We demonstrate ...

Myocardin and the myocardin-related transcription factors (MRTFs) MRTF-A and MRTF-B are coactivators for serum response factor (SRF), which regulates genes involved in cell proliferation, migration, cytoskeletal dynamics, and myogenesis. MRTF-A has been shown to translocate to the nucleus and activate SRF in response to Rho signaling and actin polymerization. Previously, we ...

Muscle force is generated by myosin crossbridges interacting with actin. As estimated from stiffness and equatorial X-ray diffraction of muscle and muscle fibres, most myosin crossbridges are attached to actin during isometric contraction, but a much smaller fraction is bound ...

The thermodynamic properties of the actin filaments prepared from cardiomyocytes were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry. This method could distinguish between the {alpha}-cardiac and {alpha}-skeletal components of the actin filaments polymerised from ADP-actin monomers by their different melting temperatures (T{sub ...

Muscle contraction mechanism is discussed by reforming the model described in an article by Mitsui (Adv. Biophys. 1999, 36, 107�158). A simple thermodynamic relationship is presented, which indicates that there is an inconsistency in the power stroke model or the swinging lever model. To avoid this difficulty, a new model is proposed. It is assumed that a myosin head forms a ...

Cover image:? Smooth muscle progenitor cells stained for a-smooth muscle actin (green) and the chemokine receptor CXCR4 (red). See Liu et al pp 586-591 � ?Advances in stroke in 2010 � ?Aldosterone synthase gene and hypertension � ?Aliskiren, bradykinin and tissue kallikrein � ?ABCC1 polymorphism and lung cancer � ?Non-?(2) ...

Actin has maintained an exquisite degree of sequence conservation over large evolutionary distances for reasons that are not understood. The desire to explain phenomena from muscle contraction to cytokinesis in mechanistic detail has driven the generation of an atomic model of the actin filament (F-actin). Here we ...

Actin has maintained an exquisite degree of sequence conservation over large evolutionary distances for reasons that are not understood. Generating an atomic model of the actin filament (F-actin) has been driven by the desire to explain phenomena from muscle contraction to cytokinesis in mechanistic detail. Here we ...

An actin encoding gene was cloned by using RT-PCR, 3? RACE and 5? RACE from abalone Haliotis discus hannai. The full length of the gene is 1532 base pairs, which contains a long 3? untranslated region of 307 base pairs and 79 base pairs of 5? untranslated sequence. The open reading frame encodes 376 amino acid residues. Sequence comparison with those of human and other ...

The existence of a feedback mechanism regulating the precise amounts of muscle structural proteins, such as actin and the actin-associated protein tropomyosin (Tm), in the sarcomeres of striated muscles is well established. However, the regulation of nonmuscle or cytoskeletal actin and Tms in ...

Mar 1, 2011 ... The structure the semicrystalline state of profilin:actin will challenge and validate current models of muscle contraction and cell motility ...

... Preliminary studies have evaluated Matrigel plugs using immunohistochemistry for tenascin-C, CD34 and smooth muscle α-actin as shown in ...

, and stimulate the expression of contractile vSMC markers, such as smooth- muscle a-actin (SMA), calponin-1 (CNN

... tubules. Hematoxylin counterstain. Bar = 50 �m. D) Immunohistochemical detection of alpha smooth muscle actin of a section adjacent to ... ...

Apr 21, 2011 ... Intestinal smooth muscle samples were analyzed for changes in weight, protein content, RNA and mRNA levels for actin. ...

... is the coulomb friction effects at the contact sites between the myosin cross-bridges and the actin filaments. The equation derived for the energy ...

... The interaction between actin thin filaments and myosin thick filaments provides the molecular basis for muscle contraction which is regulated by ...

Phalloidin and fluorescently labeled phalloidin analogs are established reagents to stabilize and mark actin filaments for the investigation of acto-myosin interactions. In the present study, we employed transient and steady-state kinetic measurements as well as in vitro motility assays to show that phalloidin perturbs the productive interaction of human ...

Myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) phosphorylates the light chain of smooth muscle myosin enabling its interaction with actin. This interaction initiates smooth muscle contraction. MLCK has another role that is not attributable to its phosphorylating activity, i.e., it inhibits the ATP-dependent movement of actin ...

Skeletal and smooth muscle tropomyosin (Tm) require acetylation of their N termini to bind strongly to actin. Tm containing an N-terminal alanine serine (AS) extension to mimic acetylation, has been widely used to increase binding. The current study investigates the ability of an N-terminal AS extension to mimic native acetylation for both ?? and ?? smooth ...

The myocardium responds to hemodynamic stress through cellular growth and organ hypertrophy. The impact of cytoskeletal elements on this process, however, is not fully understood. While ?-actin in cardiomyocytes governs muscle contraction in combination with the myosin motor, the exact role of ?-actin has not been established. We ...

For the past half century, the sliding filament-based cross-bridge theory has been the cornerstone of our understanding of how muscles contract. According to this theory, active force can only occur if there is overlap between the contractile filaments, actin and myosin. Otherwise, forces are thought to be caused by passive structural elements and are ...

It is well documented that muscle contraction results from cyclic rotations of actin-bound myosin cross-bridges. The role of actin is hypothesized to be limited to accelerating phosphate release from myosin and to serving as a rigid substrate for cross-bridge rotations. To test this hypothesis, we have measured ...

The actin cytoskeleton is continuously remodeled through cycles of actin filament assembly and disassembly. Filaments are born through nucleation and shaped into supramolecular structures with various essential functions. These range from contractile and protrusive assemblies in muscle and non-muscle cells to ...

The actin cytoskeleton is continuously remodeled through cycles of actin filament assembly and disassembly. Filaments are born through nucleation and shaped into supramolecular structures with various essential functions. These range from contractile and protrusive assemblies in muscle and non-muscle cells to ...

Nemaline myopathy is a neuromuscular disorder, characterized by muscle weakness and hypotonia and is, in 20% of the cases, caused by mutations in the gene encoding alpha-skeletal muscle actin, ACTA1. It is a heterogeneous disease with various clinical phenotypes and severities. In patients the ultrastructure of ...

The actin genes encode several structurally similar, but perhaps functionally different, protein isoforms that mediate contractile function in muscle cells and determine the morphology and motility in nonmuscle cells. To reveal the isoform profile in the gastric monomeric actin pool, we purified actin from the ...

Breathing is known to functionally antagonize bronchoconstriction caused by airway muscle contraction. During breathing, tidal lung inflation generates force fluctuations that are transmitted to the contracted airway muscle. In vitro, experimental application of force fluctuations to contracted airway smooth muscle strips causes them ...

Muscle atrophy prevails in numerous diseases (cancer cachexia, renal failure, infections, etc.), mainly results from elevated proteolysis, and is accelerated by bed rest. This largely contributes to increased health costs. Devising new strategies to prevent muscle wasting is a major clinical challenge. The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) degrades ...

Actin thin filaments containing bound tropomyosin (Tm) or tropomyosin troponin (Tm.Tn) exist in two states ("off" and "on") with different affinities for myosin heads (S1), which results in the cooperative binding of S1. The rate of S1 binding to, and dissociating from, actin, Tm.actin, and Tm.Tn.actin, monitored ...

To clarify the extensibility of thin actin and thick myosin filaments in muscle, we examined the spacings of actin and myosin filament-based reflections in x-ray diffraction patterns at high resolution during isometric contraction of frog skeletal muscles and steady lengthening of the active ...

Knowledge of the elastic properties of actin filaments is crucial for considering its role in muscle contraction, cellular motile events, and formation of cell shape. The stiffness of actin filaments in the directions of stretching and bending has been determined. In this study, we have directly determined the torsional rigidity ...

Low levels of Ca2+ dramatically influence the polymerization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin in KCl. The apparent critical concentration for polymerization (C infinity) increases eightfold in the presence of 0.1 mM Ca2+. This effect is rapidly reversed by the addition of ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid or of 0.1 mM Mg2+. Furthermore, the ...

F-actin is the major component of muscle thin filaments and, more generally, of the microfilaments of the dynamic, multifunctional cytoskeletal systems of nonmuscle eukaryotic cells. Polymeric F-actin is formed by reversible noncovalent self-association of monomeric G-actin. To understand the dynamics of ...

... 586 8740; lye@mshri.on.ca Abstract The myometrium undergoes dramatic changes as pregnancy progresses through phases ... visceral smooth muscle) were detected in the rat myometrium. Myometrial expression ...

Promoter sequences required for activation of the Xenopus cardiac actin gene in embryonic muscle were analysed by micro-injecting chimeric actin/beta-globin genes into the two-cell Xenopus embryo. Transcription was monitored during subsequent differentiation of embryonic muscle and non-muscle ...

The molecular mechanism of myosin function was addressed by measuring transient kinetic parameters of naturally occurring and chimeric Drosophila muscle myosin isoforms. We assessed the native embryonic isoform, the native indirect flight muscle isoform, and two chimeric isoforms containing converter domains exchanged between the indirect flight ...

Sera from five patients with chronic aggressive hepatitis containing smooth muscle autoantibodies were tested by means of indirect immunofluorescence for their binding to isolated rabbit skeletal muscle myofibrils. In all cases, the immunofluorescent staining was sharply localized to I bands. After incubation of these sera with skeletal ...

The functional diversity of the actin microfilaments relies in part on the actin binding protein tropomyosin (Tm). The muscle-specific Tms regulate actin-myosin interactions and hence contraction. However, there is less known about the roles of the numerous cytoskeletal isoforms. We have shown previously that a ...

Smooth muscle contractile activity is a major regulator of function of the vascular system, respiratory system, gastrointestinal system and the genitourinary systems. Malfunction of contractility in these systems leads to a host of clinical disorders, and yet, we still have major gaps in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which contractility of the differentiated ...

Smooth muscle contractile activity is a major regulator of function of the vascular system, respiratory system, gastrointestinal system and the genitourinary systems. Malfunction of contractility in these systems leads to a host of clinical disorders, and yet, we still have major gaps in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which contractility of the differentiated ...

Specific mutations within the alpha-skeletal actin gene (ACTA1) result in intranuclear rod myopathy (IRM), characterized by rod-like aggregates containing actin and alpha-actinin-2 inside the nucleus of muscle cells. The mechanism leading to formation of intranuclear aggregates containing sarcomeric proteins and their impact on cell ...

Twenty-two missense mutations in ACTA2, which encodes ?-smooth muscle actin, have been identified to cause thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection. Limited access to diseased tissue, the presence of multiple unresolvable actin isoforms in the cell, and lack of an animal model have prevented analysis of the biochemical mechanisms ...

Our group has previously shown that vasoconstrictors increase net actin polymerization in differentiated vascular smooth muscle cells (dVSMC) and that increased actin polymerization is linked to contractility of vascular tissue (Kim et al., Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 295: C768-778, 2008). However, the underlying mechanisms are largely ...

Our group has previously shown that vasoconstrictors increase net actin polymerization in differentiated vascular smooth muscle cells (dVSMC) and that increased actin polymerization is linked to contractility of vascular tissue (Kim et al., Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 295: C768�778, 2008). However, the underlying mechanisms are largely ...

The major soluble protein of the isolated brush-border of the intestinal epithelium has a molecular weight and net charge indistinguishable from those of skeletal-muscle actin, as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Furthermore, this protein, isolated from acetone powders of the purified brush-border, undergoes a G to F transformation in the ...

Small Rho family GTPases are important regulators of cellular traffic. Emerging evidence now implicates Rac1 and Rac-dependent actin reorganisation in insulin-induced recruitment of glucose transporter-4 (GLUT4) to the cell surface of muscle cells and mature skeletal muscle. This review summarises the current thinking on the regulation ...

Calculation of the size of the power stroke of the myosin motor in contracting muscle requires knowledge of the compliance of the myofilaments. Current estimates of actin compliance vary significantly introducing uncertainty in the mechanical parameters of the motor. Using x-ray diffraction on small bundles of permeabilized fibers from rabbit ...

Nuclear actin is involoved in transcription of all three RNA polymerases, chromatin remodeling, and formation of hnRNP complexes as well as recruitment of histone modifier to the active gene. In addition, actin-binding proteins (ABPs) control actin nucleation, bundling, filament capping, fragmentation, and monomer availability in the ...

Myosin light chain kinase has an inhibitory effect on the interaction of actin filaments with phosphorylated smooth muscle myosin. Myosin light chain kinase binds to actin filaments, and the inhibition is attributable to the actin-binding activity and not the kinase activity of myosin light chain kinase [Kohama et ...

Smooth-muscle actin was isolated from pig uterus and from pregnant-rat uterus. Methods involving acetone-dried powders were unsuccessful, and a column-chromatographic procedure was developed, with proteinase inhibitors and avoiding polymerization as a purification step. The yield of pure actin was 0.8--1.5 mg/g wet wt. of uterus, which ...

Actin and myosin form the molecular motor in muscle. Myosin is the enzyme performing ATP hydrolysis under the allosteric control of actin such that actin binding initiates product release and force generation in the myosin power stroke. Non-equilibrium Monte Carlo molecular dynamics simulation of the power stroke ...

Toxoplasma gondii relies on its actin cytoskeleton to glide and enter its host cell. However, T. gondii tachyzoites are known to display a strikingly low amount of actin filaments, which suggests that sequestration of actin monomers could play a key role in parasite actin dynamics. We isolated a 27-kDa tachyzoite ...

The accumulation of the cytoskeletal ..beta..-and ..gamma..-actin mRNAs was determined in a variety of mouse tissues and organs. The ..beta..-iosform is always expressed in excess of the ..gamma..-isoform. However, the molar ratio of ..beta..- to ..gamma..-actin mRNA varies from 1.7 in kidney and testis to 12 in sarcomeric muscle to ...

The protein caldesmon, originally isolated from smooth muscle tissue where it is the most abundant calmodulin-binding protein, has since been shown to have a wide distribution in actin- and myosin- containing cells where it is localized in sub-cellular structures concerned with motility, shape changes and exo- or endo-cytosis. Caldesmon is believed to be ...

The role of troponin-I (the inhibitory subunit of troponin) in the regulation by Ca2+ of skeletal muscle contraction was investigated with resonance energy transfer and photo cross-linking techniques. The effect of Ca2+ on the proximity of troponin-I to actin in reconstituted rabbit skeletal thin filaments was determined. The distance between the cysteine ...

1. By the use of the extended elution system for basic amino acid analysis, 3-methylhistidine has been detected in hydrolysates of actin isolated from mammalian, fish and bird skeletal muscle. 2. Evidence is presented to indicate that 3-methylhistidine forms part of the primary structure and that in rabbit actin this residue is ...

The distribution of filamentous actin bundles in the rat kidney was studied using a fluorescent phallotoxin label and transmission electron microscopy. The microvillous brush border lining proximal tubules, smooth muscle in renal vessels, and renal corpuscles were the structures most intensely labeled with rhodamine phalloidin. Closer evaluation of renal ...

Antibodies against alpha smooth muscle actin (ASMA) and S100 protein were applied to paraffin wax embedded sections from 40 salivary gland tumours and seven normal salivary glands. The results indicate that ASMA is useful in the diagnosis of epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma, but is otherwise only of limited use in diagnostic practice. An unexpected ...

A specific hypothesis relating the attachment-detachment cycle of cross bridges between actin (I) and myosin (A) filaments to the measured length-tension dynamics of active insect fibrillar flight muscle is tested. It is first shown that if local A-filame...

Fibroblasts from canine vocal fold tissue have been isolated and maintained in culture. These cells express vimentin and a-smooth muscle actin, the characteristic marker of myofibroblast differentiation. Elastin production by vocal fold fibroblasts was co...

The human skeletal muscle alpha actin gene (ACTA1) has previously been localized to 1p21-->qter using somatic cell hybrids and a specific probe from the 3' untranslated region of the gene. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization the localization has been confirmed and the ACTA1 gene precisely mapped to 1q42. PMID:8258301

This animation shows the roles of actin and myosin, proteins found in eukaryotic tissues, in facilitating muscle contraction. The proteins can be seen to interlock and overlap in a way that produces length change and tension development in skeletal muscle. The animation is downloadable in two different file formats, and includes a ...

BackgroundFocal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) is recently reported to regulate insulin resistance by regulating glucose uptake in C2C12 skeletal muscle cells. However, the underlying mechanism for FAK-mediated glucose transporter-4 translocation (Glut-4), responsible for glucose uptake, remains unknown. Recently actin remodeling was reported to be essential for ...

The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) serves as the Ca(2+) reservoir for muscle contraction. Tropomodulins (Tmods) cap filamentous actin (F-actin) pointed ends, bind tropomyosins (Tms), and regulate F-actin organization. In this paper, we use a genetic targeting approach to examine the effect of Tmod1 deletion on the ...

Mitochondrial DNA maintenance and segregation are dependent on the actin cytoskeleton in budding yeast. We found two cytoskeletal proteins among six proteins tightly associated with rat liver mitochondrial DNA: non-muscle myosin heavy chain IIA and ?-actin. In human cells, transient gene silencing of MYH9 (encoding ...

Mitochondrial DNA maintenance and segregation are dependent on the actin cytoskeleton in budding yeast. We found two cytoskeletal proteins among six proteins tightly associated with rat liver mitochondrial DNA: non-muscle myosin heavy chain IIA and ?-actin. In human cells, transient gene silencing of MYH9 (encoding ...

The force generated between actin and myosin acts predominantly along the direction of the actin filament, resulting in relative sliding of the thick and thin filaments in muscle or transport of myosin cargos along actin tracks. Previous studies have also detected lateral forces or torques that are generated ...

alpha-skeletal actin message levels have been shown to be tightly regulated in chicken primary myoblast cultures. To test for gene elements required for muscle cell specific expression, DNA sequences containing the 5'-flanking regions of the chicken alpha-skeletal actin, beta-cytoplasmic actin, and the histone H2b ...

Crawling locomotion of eukaryotic cells is achieved by a process dependent on the actin cytoskeleton: protrusion of the leading edge requires assembly of a network of actin filaments, which must be disassembled at the cell rear for sustained motility. Although ADF/cofilin proteins have been shown to contribute to actin disassembly, it ...

Glutathionylation of intracellular proteins is an established physiological regulator of protein function. In multiple models including ischemia-reperfusion of the heart, increased oxidative stress results in the glutathionylation of sarcomeric actin. We hypothesized that actin glutathionylation may play a role in the multi-factorial change in cardiac ...

In addition to its kinase activity, myosin light chain kinase has an actin-binding activity, which results in bundling of actin filaments [Hayakawa et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 199, 786-791, 1994]. There are two actin-binding sites on the kinase: calcium- and calmodulin-sensitive and insensitive sites [Ye et al., J. Biol. ...

The proper localization of �-actin mRNA and protein is essential for growth cone guidance and axon elongation in cultured neurons. In addition, decreased levels of �-actin mRNA and protein have been identified in the growth cones of motor neurons cultured from a mouse model of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), suggesting that ...

The proper localization of �-actin mRNA and protein is essential for growth cone guidance and axon elongation in cultured neurons. In addition, decreased levels of �-actin mRNA and protein have been identified in the growth cones of motor neurons cultured from a mouse model of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), suggesting that ...

Disassembly of actin filaments by actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin and actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1) is a conserved mechanism to promote reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. We previously reported that unc-78, an AIP1 gene in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, is required for organized assembly ...

Disassembly of actin filaments by actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin and actin-interacting protein 1 (AIP1) is a conserved mechanism to promote reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton. We previously reported that unc-78, an AIP1 gene in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, is required for organized assembly ...

Evidence for the participation of the 1-7 and 18-28 N-terminal sequences of actin at different steps of actin-myosin interaction process is well documented in the literature. Cross-linking of the rigor complex between filamentous actin and skeletal-muscle myosin subfragment 1 was accomplished by the ...

We characterized the form and distribution of muscle and nonmuscle actin within retinal pericytes. Antibodies with demonstrable specificities for the actin isoforms were used in localization and immunoprecipitation experiments to identify those cellular domains that were enriched or deficient in one or several ...

We characterized the form and distribution of muscle and nonmuscle actin within retinal pericytes. Antibodies with demonstrable specificities for the actin isoforms were used in localization and immunoprecipitation experiments to identify those cellular domains that were enriched or deficient in one or several ...

?_cyto-Actin and ?_cyto-actin are ubiquitous proteins thought to be essential building blocks of the cytoskeleton in all non-muscle cells. Despite this widely held supposition, we show that ?_cyto-actin null mice (Actg1^?/?) are ...

An actingene (CfACTI) was cloned by using RT-PCR, 3� and 5�RACE from hemocytes of the sea scallop Chlamys farreri. The full length of the transcript is 1 535 bp, which contains a long 3� un-translated region of 436bp and 59bp of a 5� un-translated sequence. The open reading frame encodes a polypeptide of 376 amino acids. Sequence comparisons indicated that CfACTI is more closely related to ...

Lack of staining for desmin in muscles in animal models of eccentric exercise has been suggested to reflect disruption of the desmin intermediate filament network and proposed to cause disruption of the myofibrillar apparatus and deterioration of muscle fibers. In a recent study, we examined muscle biopsies from persons who had ...

Myoblast fusion provides a fundamental, conserved mechanism for muscle fiber growth. We demonstrate here that the functional contribution of Wsp, the Drosophila homolog of the conserved actin nucleation-promoting factor (NPF) WASp, is essential for myoblast fusion during the formation of muscles of the adult fly. Disruption of Wsp ...

The role of calcium-dependent proteinase (CDP) in the proecdysial atrophy of crustacean claw muscle has been investigated. During atrophy the molar ratio of actin to myosin heavy chain decreased 31%, confirming earlier ultrastructural observations that the ratio of thin:thick myofilaments declined from 9:1 to 6:1 (D.L. Mykles and D.M. Skinner, 1981, J. ...

Formation of the strong binding interaction between actin and myosin is essential for force generation in muscle and in cytoskeletal motor systems. To clarify the role of the closure of myosin's actin-binding cleft in the actomyosin interaction, we performed rapid kinetic, spectroscopic, and calorimetric experiments and atomic-level ...

Although the biochemical properties of the actin/myosin interaction have been studied extensively using actin activation of myosin ATPase as an assay, until recently no well-defined assay has been available to measure the mechanical properties of ATP-dependent movement of myosin along actin filaments. The first direct measurements of ...

The mutation Met132Val in the ACTA1 gene was identified in a patient with mild nemaline myopathy (NM). We examined actin mRNA and protein from biopsy samples. Sixty-one percent of the mRNA from the biopsy was not cleaved with BstX1, indicating the presence of mutant messenger in vivo. Monomeric actin was extracted from 2.5 mg of mutant ...

Recent studies in Drosophila have implicated actin cytoskeletal remodeling in myoblast fusion, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this process remain poorly understood. Here we show that actin polymerization occurs in an asymmetric and cell type�specific manner between a muscle founder cell and a fusion-competent myoblast (FCM). ...

Mutations in the gene encoding alpha-skeletal-muscle actin, ACTA1, cause congenital myopathies of various phenotypes that have been studied since their discovery in 1999. Although much is now known about the clinical aspects of myopathies resulting from over 60 different ACTA1 mutations, we have very little evidence for how mutations alter the behavior of ...

There has been considerable controversy regarding the lineage relationship between smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and myofibroblasts, because they express a number of common cell-selective markers including smooth muscle (SM) alpha-actin. We have shown previously that MCAT elements within the SM alpha-actin promoter ...

Available high-resolution structures of F-actin, myosin subfragment 1 (S1), and their complex, actin-S1, were used to calculate a 2D x-ray diffraction pattern from skeletal muscle in rigor. Actin sites occupied by myosin heads were chosen using a "principle of minimal elastic distortion energy" so that the 3D ...

Mutations in alpha-skeletal actin (ACTA1) underlie several congenital muscle disorders including nemaline myopathy (NM). Almost all ACTA1-NM patients have normal cardiac function, and, even lethally affected congenital NM patients exhibit an unremarkable gestation with decreased foetal movement just prior to birth. Although alpha-skeletal ...

Dictyostelium discoideum plasma membranes isolated by each of three procedures bind F-actin. The interactions between these membranes and actin are examined by a novel application of falling ball viscometry. Treating the membranes as multivalent actin-binding particles analogous to divalent actin-gelatin factors, ...

BackgroundTropomyosin is a prototypical coiled coil along its length with subtle variations in structure that allow interactions with actin and other proteins. Actin binding globally stabilizes tropomyosin. Tropomyosin-actin interaction occurs periodically along the length of tropomyosin. However, it is not well understood how ...

Ovulation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is coordinated by interactions between the somatic gonad and germ cells. Myoepithelial sheath cells of the proximal ovary are smooth muscle-like cells, but the regulatory mechanism of their contraction is unknown. We show that contraction of the ovarian muscle requires tropomyosin and troponin, which are ...

Ovulation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is coordinated by interactions between the somatic gonad and germ cells. Myoepithelial sheath cells of the proximal ovary are smooth muscle-like cells, but the regulatory mechanism of their contraction is unknown. We show that contraction of the ovarian muscle requires tropomyosin and troponin, which are ...

During active muscle contraction, tension is generated through many simultaneous, independent interactions between the molecular motor myosin and the actin filaments. The ensemble of myosin motors displays heterogeneous conformations reflecting different kinetic steps of the ATPase pathway. We used electron tomography of actively contracting insect flight ...

Alpha-actinin is a cytoskeletal actin-binding protein and a member of the spectrin superfamily, which comprises spectrin, dystrophin and their homologues and isoforms. It forms an anti-parallel rod-shaped dimer with one actin-binding domain at each end of the rod and bundles actin filaments in multiple cell-type and cytoskeleton ...

A recent publication in Biophysical Journal by Bianco et al. (�Interaction forces between F-actin and titin PEVK domain measured with optical tweezers�) shows that the PEVK domain of titin molecules interacts with F-actin. This newly discovered behavior could influence the mechanical properties of striated muscles, and Bianco et ...

Actin represents one of the most highly conserved families of proteins in evolution. The work presented here describes the molecular characterization of the mouse smooth muscle (enteric) {gamma}-actin gene (SMGA). It represents the largest isoactin gene characterized to date, measuring over 23,000 bp from the transcription start site ...

Calponins and transgelins are members of a conserved family of actin-associated proteins widely expressed from yeast to humans. Although a role for calponin in muscle cells has been described, the biochemical activities and in vivo functions of nonmuscle calponins and transgelins are largely unknown. Herein, we have used genetic and biochemical analyses to ...

Congenital myopathies are clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorders characterized by muscle structural abnormalities, muscle weakness and deformities. The clinical spectrum of the disease ranges from severe cases with early death to adult-onset cases with slow progression. In the skeletal muscle fibers, the specific structural ...

Nebulin, a giant, actin-binding protein, is the largest member of a family of proteins (including N-RAP, nebulette, lasp-1 and lasp-2) that are assembled in a variety of cytoskeletal structures, and expressed in different tissues. For decades, nebulin has been thought to act as a molecular ruler, specifying the precise length of actin filaments in skeletal ...

Actin is found in almost all kinds of non-muscle cells where it is thought to have an important role in cell motility. A proper understanding of that role will only be possible when reliable in vitro systems are available for investigating the interaction of cellular actin and myosin. A start has been made on several systems, most ...

Actin is found in almost all kinds of non-muscle cells where it is thought to have an important role in cell motility. A proper understanding of that role will only be possible when reliable in vitro systems are available for investigating the interaction of cellular actin and myosin. A start has been made on several systems1-4, most ...

Mutant yeast actins were used to determine the role of actin's N-terminal negative charges in force generation. The thin filament was selectively removed from bovine cardiac skinned muscle fibres by gelsolin, and the actin filament was reconstituted from purified G-actin. In this ...

Background2,3-Butanedione monoxime (BDM) has been widely used as a non-muscle myosin inhibitor to investigate the role of non-muscle myosinII in the process of actin retrograde flow and other actin cytoskeletal processes. Recent reports show that BDM does not inhibit any non-muscle myosins so ...

In addition to its kinase activity, the myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) of smooth muscle has an actin binding activity through which it can regulate the actin-myosin interaction of smooth muscle (Kohama, K., Okagaki, T., Hayakawa, K., Lin, Y., Ishikawa, R., Shimmen, T., and Inoue, A. (1992) Biochem. Biophys. Res. ...

BackgroundActin is a cytoskeletal protein which exerts a broad range of functions in almost all eukaryotic cells. In higher vertebrates, six primary actin isoforms can be distinguished: alpha-skeletal, alpha-cardiac, alpha-smooth muscle, gamma-smooth muscle, beta-cytoplasmic and gamma-cytoplasmic isoactin. ...

To assess the significance of the NH2-terminus of actin for cross-bridge action in muscle, skinned fibers of rabbit psoas muscle were equilibrated with Fab fragments of antibodies directed against the first seven N-terminal residues of actin. With the antibody fragment, active force is more inhibited than relaxed ...

A new constitutive model for the biomechanical behaviour of smooth muscle tissue is proposed. The active muscle contraction is accomplished by the relative sliding between actin and myosin filaments, comprising contractile units in the smooth muscle cells. The orientation of the myosin filaments, and thereby the ...

Liposomes encapsulating actin filaments were prepared by swelling at 0 degrees C lipid film consisting of a mixture of dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine and cardiolipin (equal amounts by weight) in 100 microM rabbit skeletal muscle actin and 0.5 mM CaCl2 followed by polymerization of actin at 30 degrees C. Liposomes ...

Spherical giant liposomes that had encapsulated skeletal-muscle G-actin were made by swelling a dried lipid mixture of dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine/cardiolipin, 1:1 (wt/wt), in a solution of G-actin/CaCl2 at 0 degree C. Polymerization of the encapsulated G-actin into actin filaments was ...

We have used time-resolved spectroscopy to investigate the structural dynamics of actin interaction with dystrophin and utrophin in relationship to the pathology of muscular dystrophy. Dystrophin and utrophin bind actin in vitro with similar affinities, but the molecular contacts of these two proteins with actin are different. It has ...

Biochemical and ultrastructural studies on isolated nuclear compartments have previously shown actin and myosin to be constituents of interphase nuclei. In the present work, immunocytochemistry, in conjunction with confocal microscopy and ultrastructural immunogold techniques, shows that interphase nuclei of intact dorsal root ganglion neurons and of PC12 cells contain ...

Soybean contains a small multigene family of actin-related sequences. We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of a soybean actin gene carried on the recombinant plasmid pSAc3. As deduced from the nucleotide sequence, this soybean actin is composed of 376 amino acids. Compared to other eukaryotic actins, ...

The effect of the type of metal ion (i.e., Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, or none) bound to the high-affinity divalent cation binding site (HAS) of actin on filament assembly, structure, and dynamics was investigated in the absence and presence of the mushroom toxin phalloidin. In agreement with earlier reports, we found the polymerization ...

Animal genomes each encode multiple highly conserved actin isoforms that polymerize to form the microfilament cytoskeleton. Previous studies of vertebrates and invertebrates have shown that many actin isoforms are restricted to either nonmuscle (cytoplasmic) functions, or to myofibril force generation in muscle cells. We have ...

Most nemaline myopathy patients have mutations in the nebulin (NEB) or skeletal muscle alpha-actin (ACTA1) genes. Here we report for the first time three patients with severe nemaline myopathy and mutations of the ACTA1 stop codon: TAG>TAT (tyrosine), TAG>CAG (glutamine) and TAG>TGG (tryptophan). All three mutations will cause inclusion of an ...

Actin cytoskeletal remodeling is an important mechanism of airway smooth muscle (ASM) contraction. We tested the hypothesis that mechanical strain modulates the cholinergic receptor-mediated cytoskeletal recruitment of actin-binding and integrin-binding proteins in intact airway smooth muscle, thereby regulating ...