Sandbox GGC2

Actin is a family of globular proteins that form microfilaments. They can be found in virtually all eukaryotic cells and come in two main forms, F-actin and G actin. Actin is responsible for many contraction properties in muscles.

Vertebrates have 3 main groups of actin isoforms, alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha actins play a major role in muscle contraction mechanism. Beta and gamma actins are involved in the regulation of cell motility. Actin has the capability to bind with other molecules, most notably myosin and ATP, in order to carry out its function.

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You may include any references to papers as in: the use of JSmol in Proteopedia ^[1] or to the article describing Jmol ^[2] to the rescue.

Function

Actins are highly conserved proteins that are involved in various types of cell motility and are ubiquitously expressed in all eukaryotic cells. The main function of ACTA1 gives directions to make the alpha (a)-actin. Actins are detrimental to cell movement and the contraction of muscle fibers. They are also used to help maintain the cytoskeleton. alpha skeletal actin is an essential component of sarcomeres, which are the basic contractile unit of muscle fibers.

Disease

Mutations in the human skeletal muscle alpha-actin gene (ACTA1) are associated with two different muscle diseases, 'congenital myopathy with excess of thin myofilaments' (actin myopathy) and nemaline myopathy. Both diseases can be identified by the abnormalities of the muscle fibers and variable degrees of muscle weakness^[3]

Relevance

Structural highlights

This is a sample scene created with SAT to by Group, and another to make of the protein. You can make your own scenes on SAT starting from scratch or loading and editing one of these sample scenes. One of the unique ligands is .