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Updated: Apr 25, 2026

In Vitro Reconstitution of the Actin Cytoskeleton Inside Giant Unilamellar Vesicles
Published on: August 25, 2022
Ordered stacking of F-actin layers and mixed lipid bilayers: a columnar liquid crystal
A Caillé1, F Artzner2, F Amblard3
1Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada H3C3J7.
Abstract:
In this Letter, we show how the grooved helical structure of actin microfilaments (F-actin) interacting with mixed fluid lipid bilayers leads to handedness-independent 1D lipid bilayer undulations coupled to longitudinal in-plane ordering of the microfilaments. This longitudinal ordering is forced by the emerging in-plane compression and curvature energy terms of the straight 1D bilayer undulation wave fronts. Thereby, adjacent helices are set into registry along their long axis in their monolayer and π shifted between adjacent monolayers. An ordered composite multilamellar structure emerges by alternate stacking of these lipid bilayers and monolayers of F-actin. This two-dimensionally ordered system has the symmetries of a centered rectangular columnar liquid crystal, the straight 1D wave fronts playing the role of the classical molecular columns.
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