title: Morphology of actin assemblies in response to polycation and salts.
abstract: F-actins are semi-flexible polyelectrolytes and can be assembled into a large polymer-actin complex with polymorphism through electrostatic interaction with polycations. This study investigates the structural phase behavior and the growth of polymer-actin complexes in terms of its longitudinal and lateral sizes in various polycation and KCl concentrations for a constant actin concentration. Our results show that the longitudinal growth and lateral growth of polymer-actin complexes, initiated by a common nucleation process, are dominated by different factors in subsequent growth process. This induces the structural polymorphism of polymer-actin complexes. Major factors to influence the polymorphism of polymer-actin complexes in polyelectrolyte systems have been discussed. Our results indicate that the semiflexible polyelectrolyte nature of F-actins is important for controlling the morphology and growth of actin architectures in cells.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan, and SORST, JST, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan.
authors.forename: Hyuck Joon
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kakugo
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shikinaka
authors.forename: Yoshihito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Osada
authors.forename: Jian Ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D008841:Actin Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry*; D000199:Actins / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D002412:Cations / Q000737:chemistry*; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004573:Electrolytes; D007477:Ions; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D049897:Pectinidae; D011073:Polyamines / Q000737:chemistry*; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011189:Potassium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D011485:Protein Binding; D012492:Salts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055672:Static Electricity
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002412:Cations; D004573:Electrolytes; D007477:Ions; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011073:Polyamines; D000071228:Polyelectrolytes; D011108:Polymers; D011189:Potassium Chloride; D012492:Salts