An electron microscopy study revealed key details of actin filaments, which are essential structural elements of cells and muscles. Actin filaments -- protein structures critical to living movement ...

Researchers have visualized at the molecular level how formins bind to the ends of actin filaments. This allowed them to uncover how formins mediate the addition of new actin molecules to a growing ...

Actin filaments - protein structures critical to living movement from single cells to animals - have long been known to have polarity associated with their physical characteristics, with growing ...

Researchers at Kanazawa University report in eLife on deciphering the actin structure-dependent preferential cooperative binding of cofilin. The actin filament is a double-stranded helical structure ...

Cells in the human body are made to move. They assemble during embryo development, migrate to repair tissue, hunt pathogens, and perform a host of other tasks requiring travel. As part of the ...

Metastases occur when cancer cells leave a primary tumor and spread throughout the body. For this, they have to break connections with neighboring cells and migrate to other tissues. Both processes ...

Members of the cofilin/ADF family of proteins sever actin filaments, increasing the number of filament ends available for polymerization or depolymerization. Cofilin binds actin filaments with ...

Every time our body encounters a new disease-causing agent, a crucial defense system called adaptive immunity comes into play ...

Living cells move; not just bacteria, but also cells in our own bodies. EPFL scientists have discovered a new relationship between the three-dimensional shape of the cell and its ability to migrate.

Formins are made of two identical parts (red, orange) that encircle the actin (grey) filament in a ring-like conformation. “Our discovery allows us to interpret decades of biochemical studies on ...