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Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2008

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Life Sciences

Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Dictyostelium Discoideum Plasma Membranes Contain An Actin-Nucleating Activity That Requires Ponticulin, An Integral Membrane Glycoprotein, A. Shariff, Elizabeth J. Luna Mar 2008

Dictyostelium Discoideum Plasma Membranes Contain An Actin-Nucleating Activity That Requires Ponticulin, An Integral Membrane Glycoprotein, A. Shariff, Elizabeth J. Luna

Elizabeth J. Luna

In previous equilibrium binding studies, Dictyostelium discoideum plasma membranes have been shown to bind actin and to recruit actin into filaments at the membrane surface. However, little is known about the kinetic pathway(s) through which actin assembles at these, or other, membranes. We have used actin fluorescently labeled with N-(1-pyrenyl)iodoacetamide to examine the kinetics of actin assembly in the presence of D. discoideum plasma membranes. We find that these membranes increase the rate of actin polymerization. The rate of membrane-mediated actin polymerization is linearly dependent on membrane protein concentrations up to 20 micrograms/ml. Nucleation (the association of activated actin monomers …


A Membrane Cytoskeleton From Dictyostelium Discoideum. Ii. Integral Proteins Mediate The Binding Of Plasma Membranes To F-Actin Affinity Beads, Elizabeth J. Luna, C. M. Goodloe-Holland, H. M. Ingalls Mar 2008

A Membrane Cytoskeleton From Dictyostelium Discoideum. Ii. Integral Proteins Mediate The Binding Of Plasma Membranes To F-Actin Affinity Beads, Elizabeth J. Luna, C. M. Goodloe-Holland, H. M. Ingalls

Elizabeth J. Luna

In novel, low-speed sedimentation assays, highly purified, sonicated Dictyostelium discoideum plasma membrane fragments bind to F-actin beads (fluorescein-labeled F-actin on antifluorescein IgG-Sephacryl S-1000 beads). Binding was found to be (a) specific, since beads containing bound fluorescein-labeled ovalbumin or beads without bound fluorescein-labeled protein do not bind membranes, (b) saturable at approximately 0.6 microgram of membrane protein per microgram of bead-bound F-actin, (c) rapid with a t1/2 of 4-20 min, and (d) apparently of reasonable affinity since the off rate is too slow to be measured by present techniques. Using low-speed sedimentation assays, we found that sonicated plasma membrane fragments, after …


Direct Binding Of F-Actin To Ponticulin, An Integral Plasma Membrane Glycoprotein, C. Chia, Anne Hitt, Elizabeth Luna Mar 2008

Direct Binding Of F-Actin To Ponticulin, An Integral Plasma Membrane Glycoprotein, C. Chia, Anne Hitt, Elizabeth Luna

Elizabeth J. Luna

We have developed an 125I-labeled F-actin blot overlay assay for the identification of F-actin-binding proteins after transfer to nitrocellulose from SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Two major F-actin-binding proteins from Dictyostelium discoideum, a cytoplasmic 30 kDa protein and a 17 kDa integral membrane protein, and two minor membrane polypeptides of 19 kDa and 15 kDa were detected by this method. Using F-actin affinity and immunoaffinity chromatography, the 17 kDa polypeptide was identified as ponticulin, a previously described actin-binding glycoprotein from D. discoideum plasma membranes (Wuestehube, L.J., and Luna, E.J., [1987]: J. Cell Biol. 105:1741-1751). The binding of F-actin to ponticulin on blots is …