THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM

When Asterias or Thyone sperm come in contact with egg jelly, a long process which in Thyone measures up to 90 µm in length is formed from the acrosomal region. This process can be generated in less than 30 s. Within this process is a bundle of microfilaments. Water extracts prepared from acetone p...

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Main Authors:	Tilney, Lewis G., Hatano, Sadashi, Ishikawa, Harunori, Mooseker, Mark S.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	The Rockefeller University Press 1973
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2110911/

id	pubmed-2110911
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-21109112008-05-01 THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM Tilney, Lewis G. Hatano, Sadashi Ishikawa, Harunori Mooseker, Mark S. Article When Asterias or Thyone sperm come in contact with egg jelly, a long process which in Thyone measures up to 90 µm in length is formed from the acrosomal region. This process can be generated in less than 30 s. Within this process is a bundle of microfilaments. Water extracts prepared from acetone powders of Asterias sperm contain a protein which binds rabbit skeletal muscle myosin forming a complex whose viscosity is reduced by ATP. Within this extract is a protein with the same molecular weight as muscle actin. It can be purified either by collecting the pellet produced after the addition of Mg++ or by reextracting an acetone powder of actomyosin prepared by the addition of highly purified muscle myosin to the extract. The sperm actin can be polymerized and by electron microscopy the polymer is indistinguishable from muscle F-actin. The sperm actin was shown to be localized in the microfilaments in the acrosomal processes by: (a) heavy meromyosin binding in situ, (b) sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) gel electrophoresis of the isolated acrosomal processes and a comparison to gels of flagella which contain no band corresponding to the molecular weight of actin, and (c) SDS gel electrophoresis of the extract from isolated acrosomal caps. Since the precursor for the microfilaments in the unreacted sperm appears amorphous, we suspected that the force for the generation of the acrosomal process is brought about by the polymerization of the sperm actin. This supposition was confirmed, for when unreacted sperm were lysed with the detergent Triton X-100 and the state of the actin in the sperm extract was analyzed by centrifugation, we determined that at least 80% of the actin in the unreacted sperm was in the monomeric state. The Rockefeller University Press 1973-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2110911/ /pubmed/4356568 Text en Copyright © 1973 by The Rockefeller University Press This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Tilney, Lewis G. Hatano, Sadashi Ishikawa, Harunori Mooseker, Mark S.
spellingShingle	Tilney, Lewis G. Hatano, Sadashi Ishikawa, Harunori Mooseker, Mark S. THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM
author_facet	Tilney, Lewis G. Hatano, Sadashi Ishikawa, Harunori Mooseker, Mark S.
author_sort	Tilney, Lewis G.
title	THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM
title_short	THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM
title_full	THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM
title_fullStr	THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM
title_full_unstemmed	THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM
title_sort	polymerization of actin: its role in the generation of the acrosomal process of certain echinoderm sperm
description	When Asterias or Thyone sperm come in contact with egg jelly, a long process which in Thyone measures up to 90 µm in length is formed from the acrosomal region. This process can be generated in less than 30 s. Within this process is a bundle of microfilaments. Water extracts prepared from acetone powders of Asterias sperm contain a protein which binds rabbit skeletal muscle myosin forming a complex whose viscosity is reduced by ATP. Within this extract is a protein with the same molecular weight as muscle actin. It can be purified either by collecting the pellet produced after the addition of Mg++ or by reextracting an acetone powder of actomyosin prepared by the addition of highly purified muscle myosin to the extract. The sperm actin can be polymerized and by electron microscopy the polymer is indistinguishable from muscle F-actin. The sperm actin was shown to be localized in the microfilaments in the acrosomal processes by: (a) heavy meromyosin binding in situ, (b) sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) gel electrophoresis of the isolated acrosomal processes and a comparison to gels of flagella which contain no band corresponding to the molecular weight of actin, and (c) SDS gel electrophoresis of the extract from isolated acrosomal caps. Since the precursor for the microfilaments in the unreacted sperm appears amorphous, we suspected that the force for the generation of the acrosomal process is brought about by the polymerization of the sperm actin. This supposition was confirmed, for when unreacted sperm were lysed with the detergent Triton X-100 and the state of the actin in the sperm extract was analyzed by centrifugation, we determined that at least 80% of the actin in the unreacted sperm was in the monomeric state.
publisher	The Rockefeller University Press
publishDate	1973
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2110911/
_version_	1611411403411816448

THE POLYMERIZATION OF ACTIN: ITS ROLE IN THE GENERATION OF THE ACROSOMAL PROCESS OF CERTAIN ECHINODERM SPERM

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