Generation of a functional fluorescently-tagged PFN-3 profilin transgene in Caenorhabditis elegans

Profilin is a small actin-monomer binding protein that inhibits pointed-end elongation and spontaneous nucleation, but promotes formin-mediated assembly of actin onto barbed-ends. In Caenorhabditis elegans , the profilin PFN-3 , in conjunction with the formin FHOD-1 , promotes sarcomere formation and dense body stability in the worm striated body-wall muscle (BWM). As a tool for further study of PFN-3 , we have expressed mScarlet-tagged PFN-3 (mSc::PFN-3) under pfn-3 promoter sequence at a single exogenous locus. We demonstrate here that mSc::PFN-3 is expressed in multiple muscles, partially colocalizes with FHOD-1 in BWM, and rescues BWM defects associated with deletion of pfn-3 .