Circularization, Photomechanical Switching, and a Supercoiling Transition of Actin Filaments

T. Sanchez, I. M. Kulic, and Z. Dogic
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 098103 – Published 5 March 2010

Abstract

We confine actin filaments onto a 2D surface using depletion interactions and show that this significantly increases the probability of intramolecular circularization. Quantitative analysis reveals that the resulting semiflexible rings fluctuate significantly less then their linear counterparts with equal stiffness—an effect induced by the constraint of circular geometry. When exposed to fluorescence excitation light, rhodamine-phalloidin-labeled filaments undergo a change in their natural twist. This photomechanical transition induces a localized small-wavelength supercoiling transition of absorbed actin rings. Upon completion of the photoinduced reaction, the twist of neighboring monomers in an actin filament changes by approximately 0.26°.

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  • Received 30 July 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.098103

©2010 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

T. Sanchez1, I. M. Kulic2, and Z. Dogic1

  • 1Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA
  • 2CNRS, Institut Charles Sadron, 23 rue du Loess BP 84047, 67034 Strasbourg, France

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Issue

Vol. 104, Iss. 9 — 5 March 2010

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