Accurate polarity
control and parallel alignment of actin filaments for myosin-powered
transport systems
Makito Miyazaki,a
Kazuhiko
Kinosita Jr.a and Katsuyuki Shiroguchi*b
*Corresponding author
aDepartment
of Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University,
Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan
bLaboratory
for Integrative Genomics, RCAI, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical
Sciences (IMS-RCAI), Yokohama, 230-0045, Japan
RSC
Adv., 2013,
3,
8728-8733
DOI:
10.1039/C3RA41112E
Received 14 Aug 2012, Accepted 20 Mar
2013
First published online 02 May 2013
An actin filament is a
micrometer-long biological filament, which serves as a track of
transport systems in cells. The filament exhibits polarity while myosin
transports a cargo along it
unidirectionally. Here, we established a method to align many actin
filaments parallel with each other on a substrate with uniform polarity
as assessed by myosin movements. This actin array is an ideal candidate
for the construction of a nano-scale unidirectional
transport system powered by myosin.
