NEWS
2011 - 06 - 07 Plant Molecular Biology Unit
The Plant Molecular Biology unit has published an article in FEBS Letters describing a novel actin depolymerization factor (ADF) that displays atypical activities. The ADFs and the closely related cofilins in vertebrates and yeast define one of the most highly and widely expressed family of actin-binding proteins which play central roles in the control of actin cytoskeleton dynamics.
In contrast to vertebrates which typically possess three ADFs/cofilins, plants have particularly large families of ADFs. For instance, the model plant Arabidopsis expresses 11 functional ADFs which can be classified into four subclasses according to their tissular expression and phylogeny. The article provides evidence that ADF9 does not exhibit typical actin depolymerizing activity. Instead, ADF9 effectively stabilizes actin filaments in vitro and concomitantly bundles actin filaments. Deciphering the underlying molecular mechanisms might contribute to a better understanding of the formation of ADF-actin rods in a number of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Icing on the cake, a confocal picture accompanying the article (acquired by Stéphane Tholl, PhD student, and retouched by his sister!) has been selected to make the cover of the corresponding issue of FEBS Letters.
Arabidopsis actin-depolymerizing factors (ADFs) 1 and 9 display antagonist activities . FEBS Letters Vol 585, Iss 12, pp 1821-1827 (doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2011.05.019 ). Stéphane Tholl, Flora Moreau, Céline Hoffmann, Karthik Arumugam, Monika Dieterle, Danièle Moes, Katrin Neumann, André Steinmetz, Clément Thomas.