激光原子力显微镜观察肌动蛋白体外自组织纤维结构多态性的初步研究

利用原子力显微镜(atomic force microscope,AFM)技术,研究了肌动蛋白体外通过自组织过程形成的纤维结构及其多态性。肌动蛋白在体外通过自组织过程能够聚合形成离散的树状分支的纤维丛和具有不同直径的长纤维等高级纤维结构,表现出明显的结构多态性;与微丝工具药物鬼笔环肽干预下自装配形成的主要由单根微丝和微丝束等纤维成份构成的连续网络结构明显不同。     

利用激光AFM和TEM探索肌动蛋白体外自装配聚合结构

细胞内肌动蛋白(actin)通过与actin结合蛋白(actin binding proteins,ABPs)相互作用,形成以F-actin为基础多种ABPs参与装配的高度有序的超分子聚合结构,行使各种重要生理功能。在体外聚合条件下,不存在F-actin稳定剂时纯化的actin主要通过自装配形成大尺度的聚集堆积结构;这种表观无序的结构体系由于被认为不具备细胞功能活性而受到忽视。利用激光原子力显微镜(atomic force microscope,AFM)和透射电子显微镜(transmission electron microscope,TEM)技术,对actin体外通过自装配过程形成的大尺度聚集结构进行了细致的观察和分析。研究发现,actin在体外通过自装配过程除了形成无序的蛋白堆积物之外,还能够聚合形成复杂的离散结构,包括树状分支的纤维丛、无规卷曲的纤维簇以及具有不同直径的长纤维等;这些大尺度纤维复合物明显不同于在ABPs或过量F-actin稳定剂参与下形成的由单根微丝和微丝束构成的聚合结构。表明无ABPs或F-actin稳定剂存在的情况下,体外聚合的F-actin在一定条件下可进一步聚集缠绕形成复杂的纤维结构或无序的蛋白堆积物。事实上,actin自装配过程反映了其固有的聚合热力学特性,深入探索将有助于理解ABPs在体内actin超分子聚合结构体系装配中的调控作用及其分子机制。     

烟草花粉母细胞细胞融合过程中微丝的免疫定位观察

应用普通电镜和酶联免疫电镜技术,研究了烟草花粉母细胞中的细胞融合现象及细胞融合过程中肌动蛋白微丝骨架的变化。观察发现,处于凝线期的花粉母细胞,其内含物,包括细胞器和染色质,通过胞质通道向相邻细胞发生转移。免疫电镜观察发现,花粉母细胞中的细胞质及核中存在线状和粒状的肌动蛋白微丝。在细胞融合过程中,有微丝骨架纤维与穿壁转移的染色质和细胞器相连。本文讨论了肌动蛋白微丝骨架在细胞融合过程中的作用。     

微丝骨架动态参与花粉萌发的研究

利用改进的Alex-phalloidin活细胞染色方法和激光共聚焦显微镜技术,观察川百合(Lilium davidii Duch)花粉原生质体极性形成及萌发过程中微丝骨架的列阵变化.结果表明,花粉原生质体从贮存状态,经过水合、极性形成至萌发花粉管,其微丝结构从短小的梭形体,经过形成均匀的网状结构、向细胞边缘汇集的平行排列的束状结构,逐渐变成多层连续环绕细胞的微丝束结构.用酪氨酸磷酸酶抑制剂苯胂化氧(PAO)处理花粉原生质体,在微丝的汇合处,肌动蛋白聚集成小的团块,花粉的萌发受到抑制;而利用酪氨酸磷酸激酶抑制剂genistein处理细胞,微丝结构的列阵变化与对照相似.结果说明,在川百合花粉萌发过程中,有某种酪氨酸磷酸酶参与了反应.     

肌动蛋白相关蛋白2/3复合体的结构、功能与调节

微丝参与了细胞形态维持及细胞运动等多种重要的细胞过程。微丝由肌动蛋白单体组装而成 ,肌动蛋白相关蛋白 2 / 3(Arp2 /Arp3,Arp2 / 3)复合体在微丝形成过程中起重要作用。Arp2 / 3复合体由 7个亚单位组成 ,在细胞内受到多种核化促进因子的调节 ,并与这些因子协同作用来调节肌动蛋白的核化。Arp2 / 3复合体结构、功能及调节的研究对于阐明微丝形成机制及细胞骨架与某些信号分子的关系有重要意义。     

肌动蛋白集束调控因子及G蛋白信号转导通路

细胞骨架由微丝、微管及中等纤维组成受不同蛋白因子调控以不同方式组装成不同直径的纤维 ,遍布于一切细胞 ,决定细胞的形状 ,赋予其抗压强度 ,对细胞器及大分子进行空间组织 ,实现胞内的能量转换。在肌动蛋白 (ａｃｔｉｎ)组装成张力纤维和张力纤维解离成肌动蛋白单体过程中有多种蛋白因子参与调控 ,从而使细胞骨架处于一个生理的动态平衡中 ,执行和完成不同的生化反应。在众多的调控蛋白中 ,肌动蛋白集束调控蛋白因子 (ａｃｔｉｎｂｕｎｄｌｉｎｇｐｒｏｔｅｉｎ)不仅参与肌动蛋白结构调节 ,还与细胞内信号传导有密切关系。已发现的肌动蛋…     

中间丝

自60年代后期,陆续发现了直径约8—10nm的细胞质丝。最初由于对这类纤丝的性质不清楚,曾有fila-ments、intermediate filaments、β-filaments、80-100 filaments、100(10nm)filaments诸多命名。至70年代后期才逐渐统一为intermediate filaments(IF)或100A(10nm)filaments。IF的中文名亦很纷繁,如中等纤维、中间纤维、居间纤维、中间丝等。 IF的直径介于肌动蛋白丝与肌球蛋白丝(粗丝)和微管之间,命名冠以“中间”修饰词是恰当的。与微管相对而言,IF、微丝和粗丝同属纤丝filaments范畴。既然microfilaments和thick filaments分别称为微丝和粗丝,那么IF则理应称为中间丝。     

细胞骨架--微管

《生物学通报》在2005年第2期第43页上介绍了“细胞骨架——肌动蛋白纤维”。除了微丝(microfilament)外,细胞骨架还包括微管(microtubule)和中间纤维(intemediate filament)。     

肌动蛋白解聚因子在动物生殖和胚胎发育中的作用

肌动蛋白解聚因子家族Cofilin/ADF(AC蛋白家族)属于肌动蛋白结合蛋白,是微丝骨架的一个重要调节者。AC蛋白家族能够截断微丝,促进肌动蛋白单体的解离和循环以及微丝解聚,调控微丝骨架的重建,进而影响与微丝骨架相关的一些生理功能如细胞增殖、迁移、凋亡及胚胎发育等。本文将着重介绍AC蛋白家族在动物生殖诸如精子发生、卵巢发育、卵子发生、卵裂,以及胚胎发育等过程中的调节与功能。     

微丝

生命在于运动,各类生物有机体都在进行运动。动物和人有肌肉,肌肉收缩引起运动。构成肌肉的是肌纤维,肌纤维内有肌原纤维,肌原纤维内有粗细两种纤维,粗纤维含有肌球蛋白,细纤维含有肌动蛋白,两种蛋白相互滑动,使肌肉进行收缩运动。肌球蛋白和肌动蛋白不但分布在肌肉细胞里,还广泛地分布在非肌肉细胞里。在非肌肉细胞里它们以微丝的形式存在。肌动蛋白在2M Mg~(++)或0.1M K~+存在下,在体布能形成微丝,或者以未聚合的肌动蛋白单体的形式存在。各类真核细胞都发现有微丝,动植物细胞的生长和细胞的有丝分裂,细胞质的流动,以及变形虫和粘菌的变形运动,这些都有微丝的功能。     

Preliminarily investigating the polymorphism of self-organized actin filament in vitro by atomic force microscope

Actin is a major structural component of eukaryoticcytoskeleton and exists in monomer G-actin and filamen-tous F-actin. G-actin consists of 375 amino acid residueswith molecular weight 43 kD and is a highly conservedprotein expressed in most living organi…     

Muscle actin cleaved by proteinase K: its polymerization and in vitro motility.

Skeletal muscle actin was lightly digested by proteinase K, which cleaved the peptide bond between Met-47 and Gly-48, producing a C-terminal 35 kDa fragment. Proteinase K-cleaved actin (proK-actin) did not polymerize into F-actin upon addition of salt. In the presence of phalloidin, however, it polymerized slowly into F-actin (proK-F-actin), indicating that the cleaved actin did not dissociate into the individual cleaved fragments but retained the global structure of actin. Electron microscopy showed that proK-F-actin had the typical double-stranded structure of a normal actin filament and formed the arrowhead structure when decorated with HMM. Heavy meromyosin ATPase was weakly activated by proK-F-actin: Vmax = 0.24 s-1, and Kapp = 2.8 microM, while Vmax = 7.6 s-1, and Kapp = 13 microM by F-actin. Correspondingly, in vitro this proK-F-actin slid very slowly on HMM attached to a glass surface at an average velocity of 0.47 microns/s, or 1/12 of that of intact F-actin. The fraction of sliding filaments was less than 50%. Assuming that the nonmotile filaments attached to HMM were not involved in ATPase activation, the sliding velocity correlated with the ATPase activity activated by proK-F-actin.     

Interaction of actin with phalloidin: polymerization and stabilization of F-actin.

The cyclic peptide phalloidin, one of the toxic components of Amanita phalloides prevented the drop of viscosity of F-actin solutions after the addition of 0.6 M KI and inhibited the ATP splitting of F-actin during sonic vibration. The data concerning ATP splitting are consistent with the assumption (a) that only 1 out of every 3 actin units of the filaments needs to be combined with phalloidin in order to suppress the contribution of these 3 actins to the ATPase activity of the filament and (b) that all actin units of the filaments can combine with phalloidin with a very high affinity. -halloidin did not only stabilize the actin-actin bonds in the F-actin structure but it also increased the rate of polymerization of G-actin to F-actin. The ability of F-actin to activate myosin ATPase was not affected by phalloidin. The tropomyosin-troponin complex did not prevent the stabilizing effect of phalloidin on the F-actin structure.     

Irradiations of rabbit myofibrils with an ultraviolet microbeam. II. Phalloidin protects actin in solution but not in myofibrils from depolymerization by ultraviolet light

We tested whether phalloidin protects actin in myofibrils from depolymerization by ultraviolet light (UV). I bands in glycerinated rabbit psoas myofibrils were irradiated with a UV microbeam in the presence and absence of phalloidin. We used the retention of contractility of the irradiated I band as the assay for protection of actin by phalloidin, since previous experiments indicated that UV blocks contraction of an irradiated I band by depolymerizing the thin filaments. The I bands of myofibrils incubated in phalloidin were as sensitive to UV as control I bands, indicating that phalloidin did not protect the thin filaments. However, phalloidin did protect F-actin in solution from depolymerization by UV. This apparent contradiction between F-actin in myofibrils and F-actin in solution was resolved by observing unirradiated myofibrils that were stained with rhodamine-phalloidin. It was found that phalloidin does not bind uniformly to the thin filaments, though as the fluorescence image is observed over time the staining pattern changes until it does appear to bind uniformly. We conclude that phalloidin does not protect F-actin in myofibrils from depolymerization by UV because it does not bind uniformly to the filaments.     

Biotinylphallotoxins: preparation and use as actin probes

We describe the synthesis of four phalloidin derivatives conjugated with biotin. An aminomethyldithiolane derivative of ketophalloidin was used as a reactive starter compound, and biotin residues were coupled to this molecule either directly, separated by spacer chains comprised of one or two glycyl residues, or of a 12-atom long chain constructed from succinic acid and hexamethylendiamine. Although all products still displayed a high affinity for F-actin, as seen in competition experiments with [3H]-demethylphalloidin, only the one with the longest spacer (BHPP) showed specific and high-affinity decoration of actin filaments in permeabilized cells, in conjunction with FITC-coupled avidin and fluorescence microscopy. Combined with gold-streptavidin, BHPP decorated the actin filament system at the light and electron microscopic level faithfully and with satisfactory density. Actin filaments polymerized in vitro from purified protein were not as densely labeled as had been expected. However, in all these experiments the new phalloidin probe, when combined with avidin or streptavidin, yielded clear and highly specific labeling of F-actin. Therefore, this system is useful to identify and localize actin unambiguously in microfilaments, independent of actin antibodies, and should facilitate double-label experiments on cytoskeletal components at the ultrastructural level.     

Phalloidin perturbs the interaction of human non-muscle myosin isoforms 2A and 2C1 with F-actin

Phalloidin and fluorescently labeled phalloidin analogs are established reagents to stabilize and mark actin filaments for the investigation of acto-myosin interactions. In the present study, we employed transient and steady-state kinetic measurements as well as in vitro motility assays to show that phalloidin perturbs the productive interaction of human non-muscle myosin-2A and -2C1 with filamentous actin. Phalloidin binding to F-actin results in faster dissociation of the complex formed with non-muscle myosin-2A and -2C1, reduced actin-activated ATP turnover, and slower velocity of actin filaments in the in vitro motility assay. In contrast, phalloidin binding to F-actin does not affect the interaction with human non-muscle myosin isoform 2B and Dictyostelium myosin-2 and myosin-5b.     

Phallotoxin and actin binding assay by fluorescence enhancement.

The fluorescence of five fluorophores conjugated to phallotoxins was found to be specifically enhanced upon binding to F-actin in a polymerizing buffer. Rhodamine phalloidin had the greatest fluorescence enhancement of ninefold. The fluorescence titration of rhodamine phalloidin by actin was shown to be consistent with stoichiometric binding. The fluorescence enhancement of rhodamine phalloidin at 5 microM is linearly related to F-actin concentrations up to 2 microM and therefore can be used as an easy means of F-actin quantitation. In a competition assay, other phallotoxins reduce the fluorescence enhancement that results from the binding of rhodamine phalloidin to polymerized actin. This reduction also permits a convenient measurement of the binding constants of any competing phallotoxins.     

Actin hydrophobic loop 262-274 and filament nucleation and elongation

The importance of actin hydrophobic loop 262-274 dynamics to actin polymerization and filament stability has been shown recently with the use of the yeast mutant actin L180C/L269C/C374A, in which the hydrophobic loop could be locked in a “parked” conformation by a disulfide bond between C180 and C269. Such a cross-linked globular actin monomer does not form filaments, suggesting nucleation and/or elongation inhibition. To determine the role of loop dynamics in filament nucleation and/or elongation, we studied the polymerization of the cross-linked actin in the presence of cofilin, to assist with actin nucleation, and with phalloidin, to stabilize the elongating filament segments. We demonstrate here that together, but not individually, phalloidin and cofilin co-rescue the polymerization of cross-linked actin. The polymerization was also rescued by filament seeds added together with phalloidin but not with cofilin. Thus, loop immobilization via cross-linking inhibits both filament nucleation and elongation. Nevertheless, the conformational changes needed to catalyze ATP hydrolysis by actin occur in the cross-linked actin. When actin filaments are fully decorated by cofilin, the helical twist of filamentous actin (F-actin) changes by ∼ 5° per subunit. Electron microscopic analysis of filaments rescued by cofilin and phalloidin revealed a dense contact between opposite strands in F-actin and a change of twist by ∼ 1° per subunit, indicating either partial or disordered attachment of cofilin to F-actin and/or competition between cofilin and phalloidin to alter F-actin symmetry. Our findings show an importance of the hydrophobic loop conformational dynamics in both actin nucleation and elongation and reveal that the inhibition of these two steps in the cross-linked actin can be relieved by appropriate factors.