Skin layer at the actin-gel surface: quenched protein membranes form flat, crumpled, and tubular morphologies.
We report the discovery of a hierarchically structured skin layer formed at the surface of an isotropic gel of filamentous actin bundles at high molar ratios of alpha-actinin, an actin cross-linker, to globular actin. Confocal microscopy has elucidated the full, micron scale 3D structure. The protein skin layer, composed of a directed network of bundles, exhibits flat, crumpled, tubelike and pleated multitubular morphologies, resulting from stresses due to the underlying gel. The skin layer, which readily detaches, constitutes a model anisotropic solid membrane with stress-induced, quenched disorder.
Materials & Physics Department, Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Santa Barbara California 93106, USA.
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Hirst
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Safinya
D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D016880:Anisotropy; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D005782:Gels; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
D005782:Gels