History-dependent depolymerization of actin filaments.

Ishutesh Jain, David Lacoste, Dulal Panda, Ranjith Padinhateeri

Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.

Biochemistry 2012 Sep 25

filter terms:

Depolymerizing cytoskeletal filaments are involved in cell division, cell motility, and other cellular functions. Understanding the dynamics of depolymerization is as important as understanding the dynamics of polymerization. We study nonequilibrium depolymerization of actin filaments using a simple two-state model. We show that the polymerization history influences the dynamics of depolymerization as well as the length fluctuations during depolymerization. We also simulate depolymerization under different experimentally feasible conditions. Under conditions of constant concentration, we show that the depolymerization happens in two regimes. Under the conditions of mass conservation, the depolymerization can have three regimes.

Citation

Ishutesh Jain, David Lacoste, Dulal Panda, Ranjith Padinhateeri. History-dependent depolymerization of actin filaments. Biochemistry. 2012 Sep 25;51(38):7580-7