Profilin and formin constitute a pacemaker system for robust actin filament growth
Funk J, Merino F, Venkova L, Heydenreich L, Kierfeld J, Vargas P, Raunser S, Piel M, Bieling P (2019). eLife
doi: 10.7554/eLife.50471
In a collaborative work the Bieling group together with the group of Prof Raunser and Mathieu Piel from Institut Curie in Paris reconstituted the assembly of mammalian, non-muscle actin filaments from physiological concentrations of profilin-actin.
They discovered that under these conditions, filament growth is limited by profilin dissociating from the filament end and the speed of elongation becomes insensitive to the concentration of soluble subunits. Profilin release can be directly promoted by formin actin polymerases even at saturating profilin-actin concentrations.