Abstract
We determined the flexural (bending) rigidities of actin and cofilactin filaments from a cosine correlation function analysis of their thermally driven, two-dimensional fluctuations in shape. The persistence length of actin filaments is 9.8 μm, corresponding to a flexural rigidity of 0.040 pN μm2. Cofilin binding lowers the persistence length ∼5-fold to a value of 2.2 μm and the filament flexural rigidity to 0.0091 pN μm2. That cofilin-decorated filaments are more flexible than native filaments despite an increased mass indicates that cofilin binding weakens and redistributes stabilizing subunit interactions of filaments. We favor a mechanism in which the increased flexibility of cofilin-decorated filaments results from the linked dissociation of filament-stabilizing ions and reorganization of actin subdomain 2 and as a consequence promotes severing due to a mechanical asymmetry. Knowledge of the effects of cofilin on actin filament bending mechanics, together with our previous analysis of torsional stiffness, provide a quantitative measure of the mechanical changes in actin filaments associated with cofilin binding, and suggest that the overall mechanical and force-producing properties of cells can be modulated by cofilin activity.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 550-558 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Molecular Biology |
Volume | 381 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 5 2008 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Dr. Simon Mochrie (Yale University) for comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the American Heart Association (0655849T), National Science Foundation (MCB-0546353), and National Institutes of Health (GM071688) to E.M.D.L.C. B.R.M. is supported by National Institutes of Health training grant T32GM007223.
Keywords
- biopolymer mechanics
- imaging
- persistence length
- severing
- single molecule