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Updated: May 30, 2026

Using Microfluidics and Fluorescence Microscopy to Study the Assembly Dynamics of Single Actin Filaments and Bundles
Published on: May 5, 2022
Fragmentation is crucial for the steady-state dynamics of actin filaments
Kurt M Schmoller1, Thomas Niedermayer, Carla Zensen
1Lehrstuhl für Biophysik E27, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany.
Abstract:
Despite the recognition that actin filaments are important for numerous cellular processes, and decades of investigation, the dynamics of in vitro actin filaments are still not completely understood. Here, we follow the time evolution of the length distribution of labeled actin reporter filaments in an unlabeled F-actin solution via fluorescence microscopy. Whereas treadmilling and diffusive length fluctuations cannot account for the observed dynamics, our results suggest that at low salt conditions, spontaneous fragmentation is crucial.
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