Cortical microfilament proteins and the dynamics of the plasma membrane

The microfilament system is thought to provide motor elements needed for plasma membrane dynamics. This article focuses on two protein components that may play key roles in this process: (1) Profilin, a G-actin binding protein which is considered as the source of actin subunits necessary for rapid changes in the amount of actin filaments. Our data demonstrate that profilin is synthesized even in terminally differentiated blood cells of a high dynamic potential. In addition, we show that plasma membrane-associated profilin in fibroblasts is unevenly distributed and is concentrated in areas that are highly motile. (2) The filament-forming myosin which is the classical motor protein in the microfilament system. We show that interfering with myosin filaments by microinjecting antibodies causes brush border-type microvilli on epithelial cells to loose their upright position. This result, together with our previous observations on the effects of anti-myosin injection into fibroblastic and epithelial cells (loss of stress fibers and cellular contact sites, increase in locomotory activity, delay of cytokinesis), suggests that bipolar myosin filaments are needed to maintain a specific cortical tension which is lost upon antibody binding.