Average actin filament length

Range in isolated actin patches 50nm: in patches on plasma membranes 100nm nm
Organism Yeast
Reference Berro J, Sirotkin V, Pollard TD. Mathematical modeling of endocytic actin patch kinetics in fission yeast: disassembly requires release of actin filament fragments. Mol Biol Cell. 2010 Aug 15 21(16):2905-15. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E10-06-0494. p.2910 right column bottom paragraphPubMed ID20587776
Primary Source [1] Young, M. E., Cooper, J. A., and Bridgman, P. C. (2004). Yeast actin patches are networks of branched actin filaments. J. Cell Biol. 166, 629–635. [2] Rodal, A. A., Kozubowski, L., Goode, B. L., Drubin, D. G., and Hartwig, J. H. (2005). Actin and septin ultrastructures at the budding yeast cell cortex. Mol. Biol. Cell 16, 372–384.PubMed ID15337772, 15525671
Comments "Capping at the rate observed in cells terminated elongation in ~0.2 s when the average filament was only a couple hundred of nanometers long. The ratios of polymerized actin to the number of filament ends in [researchers'] simulations gave a similar estimate of 100–150 nm (Figure 3D), a length that varied little during patch assembly and disassembly. Filament lengths estimated by these simulations are similar to average lengths observed by electron microscopy of budding yeast patches: 50 nm (corresponding to ~19 subunits) in isolated actin patches (primary source [1]) and 100 nm (38 subunits) in patches on plasma membranes (primary source [2])."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111093