What is it about?
Actin is the most abundant protein in human cells, and is involved in most cellular processes. It is also involved in many diseases, from infection to cancer. It acts by forming long filaments, that dictate the shape of cells, and act as rail tracks to move molecules across the cells. Bacteria also possess actin-like proteins, that perform similar functions. Here we characterize a previously-unknown bacterial actin-like protein, found in common bacteria present the soil, that form hollow tubes instead of filaments.
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Why is it important?
Actin is one of the most conserved proteins, and is virtually identical in all multicellular organisms. Understanding its evolution permits to decipher important elements in the emergence of complex, multicellular life. The discovery of a tubular actin-like protein reveals that this family of proteins can form other types of architectures, which was completely unexpected. This provides new insights into our understanding of its evolution, from bacteria to humans.
Perspectives
We discovered this protein back in 2016, almost 10 years ago now, when I was a post-doc in the group of Justin Kollman, at the University of Washington in Seattle. At the time, I was not able to solve its structure, but this kept bugging me, so I took it on as my own side-project after I joined King's College London as a faculty in 2020. Eventually I was able to "crack" it, which led to this publication.
Julien Bergeron
King's College London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A family of bacterial actin homologs forms a three-stranded tubular structure, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2500913122.
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