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First published online March 30, 2007

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Virtual actin networks match reality

Actin polymerization is thought to drive the formation of lamellipodia and other protrusions at the leading edge of migrating cells. Lamellipodia contain a dense actin network but, although the assembly of such networks has been reconstituted in vitro, their dynamic and structural properties in lamellipodia are poorly understood. On p. 1491, Sébastien Schaub, Jean-Jacques Meister and Alexander Verkhovsky remedy this by comparing experimental and simulated images of actin networks. They create virtual actin networks by assuming that the nucleation of new branched filaments and their capping occurs at random along the lamellipodia's leading edge (a dendritic nucleation mechanism). Images of these simulated networks, report the authors, closely resemble electron microscopic and fluorescence images of the lamellipodia of fish keratocytes and can be used to estimate the length and orientation of actin filaments in these structures. Importantly, the close correspondence between the real and virtual images indicates that dendritic nucleation alone may account for the formation of actin networks in lamellipodia; no bundling proteins seem to be required.

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Related articles in JCS:

Analysis of actin filament network organization in lamellipodia by comparing experimental and simulated images

Sébastien Schaub, Jean-Jacques Meister, and Alexander B. Verkhovsky
JCS 2007 120: 1491-1500. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?