AFM Investigation of the Organization of Actin Bundles Formed by Actin-Binding Proteins

• 作者: Jamie L. Gilmore Kunio Takeyasu Masahiro Kumeta
• 来源期刊: 表面工程材料与先进技术期刊(英文)
• 学科: 医学
• 关键词: F-ACTIN CAPRICE α-Actinin
• 年，卷（期）: 2013,（4）
• 页码范围: 13-19
• 页数: 7页
• 分类号: R73

摘要

AFM is a powerful technique for revealing the morphological features of various biological systems at high resolution. However, one of the complications of AFM is that samples must be attached to a flat surface in order to obtain images. This often requires the development of specialized methods depending on the sample which is being used. In this study, we developed a novel technique to image actin bundles on the mica surface. Using this technique, we were able to image molecular assemblies of F-actin with two actin remodeling proteins: α-actinin and Caprice. High resolution AFM images of F-actin fibers and bundle organization depicted two different types of molecular assemblies: F-actin bundles forming an elongated “zipper” structure in the presence of α-actinin, and bundles forming a perpendicularly crossing the mesh structure in the presence of Caprice.