Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 73, Number 3, February 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 464 - 470 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2005-10410-x | |
Published online | 23 December 2005 |
Inter-filament attractions narrow the length distribution of actin filaments
1
Weizmann Institute of Science, Departments of Physics of Complex Systems Rehovot 76100, Israel
2
Weizmann Institute of Science, Departments of Materials and Interfaces Rehovot 76100, Israel
Corresponding authors: biron@fas.harvard.edu itamar01@gmail
Received:
20
August
2005
Accepted:
5
December
2005
We show that the exponential length distribution that is typical of actin filaments under physiological conditions dramatically narrows in the presence of i) crosslinker proteins or ii) polyvalent counterions or iii) depletion-mediated attractions. A simple theoretical model shows that, at equilibrium, short-range attractions that are known to enhance the tendency of filaments to align parallel to each other, lead to an increase in the average filament length and a decrease in the relative width of the distribution of filament lengths.
PACS: 87.16.Ka – Filaments, microtubules, their networks, and supramolecular assemblies / 87.15.Nn – Properties of solutions; aggregation and crystallization of macromolecules
© EDP Sciences, 2006
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