Abstract:
ADF/cofilin family of proteins is ubiquitously present in all eukaryotes. Metazoans have two or more members of this group of proteins, yeast and amoeba express only one member of ADF/cofilin family (Ono, 2007). These small molecular mass proteins regulate actin dynamics in a variety of ways. Various in-vitro studies have shown that ADF/cofilin accelerate actin monomer dissociation from pointed ends which adds in to the monomer pool of actin (Bamburg, 1999; Carlier et al., 1999; Pollard et al., 2000). ADF/cofilin also exhibit weak actin filament severing activity which generates new barbed ends and facilitate rapid increase in filament assembly at the leading edge (Maciver et al., 1991; Ono, 2003). These activities have recently been shown to depend on the concentration of ADF/cofilin proteins (Andrianantoandro and Pollard 2006).
