An actin-like protein is a component of axonemes from Chlamydomonas flagella

Several lines of evidence indicate that a component of axonemes from Chlamydomonas flagella is similar to actin from rabbit skeletal muscle. The polypeptide has an apparent molecular weight of 42,000 and in a pH gradient has the electrophoretic behavior of beta-actin. It was co-polymerized with rabbit actin and purified by affinity chromatography on DNase I-Sepharose. Incomplete proteolysis of mixed 35S-labeled axonemal protein and cold rabbit actin formed similar sets of peptides as analyzed by one-dimensional gel electrophoresis. The actin-like protein and the tubulin appear to be present in the axoneme in the molar ratio 1:60.