This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.In the unactivated Limulus sperm, a 60 m-long bundle of actin filaments crosslinked by scruin is bent and twisted into a coil around the base of the nucleus. At fertilization the bundle uncoils and fully extends in five seconds to support a finger of membrane, the acrosomal process. This biological spring is powered by stored elastic energy and does not require the action of motor proteins or actin polymerization. Our 9.5 electron cryomicroscopic structure of the extended bundle shows that twist, tilt, and rotation of actin-scruin subunits deviate widely from a 'standard' F-actin filament. This deviation appears to be related to the packing requirements of the scruin cross-linkers. The structural organization allows filaments to pack into a highly ordered and rigid bundle in the extended state, but also suggests a mechanism for storing and releasing energy between the coiled and extended states.We are currently analyzing the structure and organization of the actin filament in the bundle, the structure of the scruin, its relationship to the actin, and its packing in the bundle.
Bucero, Marta Abril; Bajaj, Chandrajit; Mourrain, Bernard (2016) On the construction of general cubature formula by flat extensions. Linear Algebra Appl 502:104-125 |
Ebeida, Mohamed S; Rushdi, Ahmad A; Awad, Muhammad A et al. (2016) Disk Density Tuning of a Maximal Random Packing. Comput Graph Forum 35:259-269 |
Wensel, Theodore G; Zhang, Zhixian; Anastassov, Ivan A et al. (2016) Structural and molecular bases of rod photoreceptor morphogenesis and disease. Prog Retin Eye Res 55:32-51 |
Jeter, Cameron B; Patel, Saumil S; Morris, Jeffrey S et al. (2015) Oculomotor executive function abnormalities with increased tic severity in Tourette syndrome. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 56:193-202 |
Zhang, Qin; Cha, Deukhyun; Bajaj, Chandrajit (2015) Quality Partitioned Meshing of Multi-Material Objects. Procedia Eng 124:187-199 |
Baker, Mariah R; Fan, Guizhen; Serysheva, Irina I (2015) Single-particle cryo-EM of the ryanodine receptor channel in an aqueous environment. Eur J Transl Myol 25:35-48 |
Bettadapura, Radhakrishna; Rasheed, Muhibur; Vollrath, Antje et al. (2015) PF2fit: Polar Fast Fourier Matched Alignment of Atomistic Structures with 3D Electron Microscopy Maps. PLoS Comput Biol 11:e1004289 |
Baranovskiy, Andrey G; Zhang, Yinbo; Suwa, Yoshiaki et al. (2015) Crystal structure of the human primase. J Biol Chem 290:5635-46 |
Zhang, Zhixian; He, Feng; Constantine, Ryan et al. (2015) Domain organization and conformational plasticity of the G protein effector, PDE6. J Biol Chem 290:12833-43 |
Baker, Mariah R; Fan, Guizhen; Serysheva, Irina I (2015) Single-Particle Cryo-EM of the Ryanodine Receptor Channel in an Aqueous Environment. Eur J Transl Myol 25:4803 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 213 publications