• DOI:10.1038/35092500
Corpus ID: 4427828

Prokaryotic origin of the actin cytoskeleton

@article{Ent2001ProkaryoticOO,
  title={Prokaryotic origin of the actin cytoskeleton},
  author={F. V. D. Ent and L. Amos and J. L{\"o}we},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2001},
  volume={413},
  pages={39-44}
}

• F. V. D. Ent, L. Amos, J. Löwe
• Published 2001
• Biology, Medicine
• Nature

It was thought until recently that bacteria lack the actin or tubulin filament networks that organize eukaryotic cytoplasm. However, we show here that the bacterial MreB protein assembles into filaments with a subunit repeat similar to that of F-actin—the physiological polymer of eukaryotic actin. By elucidating the MreB crystal structure we demonstrate that MreB and actin are very similar in three dimensions. Moreover, the crystals contain protofilaments, allowing visualization of actin-like… Expand

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