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Updated: Sep 20, 2026

Reconstitution of Membrane-Tethered Minimal Actin Cortices on Supported Lipid Bilayers
Published on: July 12, 2022
Lamellar phase of stacked two-dimensional rafts of actin filaments
Gerard C L Wong1, Alison Lin, Jay X Tang
1Materials Department, Physics Department, Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA. gclwong@uiuc.edu
Abstract:
We examined liquid crystalline phases of the cytoskeletal polyelectrolyte filamentous (F-)actin in the presence of multivalent counterions. As a function of increasing ion concentration, the F-actin rods in either an isotropic or a nematic phase will transform into a new and unexpected lamellar phase of cross-linked rafts (L(XR) phase), before condensing into a bundled phase of parallel, close-packed rods. This behavior is generic for alkali earth divalent ions Mg2+, Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+, and the structural transitions are achieved without any architecture-specific actin-binding linker proteins.
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