title: Purification and biochemical characterization of actin from Caenorhabditis elegans: its difference from rabbit muscle actin in the interaction with nematode ADF/cofilin.
abstract: Biochemical analysis of cytoskeletal proteins of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can be combined with a vast resource of genetic information in order to understand the regulation and function of the cytoskeleton in vivo. Here, I report an improved and efficient method to purify actin from wild-type C. elegans and characterization of its biochemical properties. The purified actin was highly pure and free of several known actin-binding proteins. G-actin was polymerized into F-actin in a similar kinetic process to rabbit muscle actin. G-actin interacted with bovine DNase I and inhibited its activity. However, UNC-60B, an isoform of ADF/cofilin in C. elegans, showed a marked depolymerizing activity on C. elegans actin but not on rabbit muscle actin. The results indicate that C. elegans actin shares common biochemical properties with rabbit muscle actin, while actin-binding proteins can interact with C. elegans actin in a distinct manner from rabbit muscle actin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. ono@bimcore.emory.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ono
mesh_terms: D051339:Actin Depolymerizing Factors; D000199:Actins / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000378:metabolism*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002417:Cattle; D003850:Deoxyribonuclease I / Q000378:metabolism; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000378:metabolism; D011817:Rabbits; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D051339:Actin Depolymerizing Factors; D000199:Actins; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D015801:Helminth Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D020033:Protein Isoforms; C495209:UNC-60 protein, C elegans; D003850:Deoxyribonuclease I