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Genetic And Biochemical Characterization Of Drosophila Singed, A Homolog Of The Actin Bundling Protein Fascin, Kelly Cant

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Drosophila singed mutants were named for their gnarled bristle phenotype, however, severe alleles are also female sterile due to a defect in nurse cell cytoplasm transport. Recently, singed protein was shown to have 35% peptide identity with the actin bundling protein fascin. I present evidence that singed is a homolog of fascin. In vivo, singed is required for actin filament bundle formation in the cytoplasm of nurse cells during oogenesis and in the cellular extension that forms a bristle. In vitro, purified bacterially-expressed singed bundles actin filaments with the same 12 nm periodicity and stoichiometry reported for sea urchin fascin.While …