TITLE:
AFM Investigation of the Organization of Actin Bundles Formed by Actin-Binding Proteins
AUTHORS:
Jamie L. Gilmore, Masahiro Kumeta, Kunio Takeyasu
KEYWORDS:
F-Actin; Caprice; α-Actinin
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology,
Vol.3 No.4A,
October
22,
2013
ABSTRACT: 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.