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Celebrating 20 years of live single-actin-filament studies with five golden rules.

ABSTRACT: The precise assembly and disassembly of actin filaments is required for several cellular processes, and their regulation has been scrutinized for decades. Twenty years ago, a handful of studies marked the advent of a new type of experiment to study actin dynamics: using optical microscopy to look at individual events, taking place on individual filaments in real time. Here, we summarize the main characteristics of this approach and how it has changed our ability to understand actin assembly dynamics. We also highlight some of its caveats and reflect on what we have learned over the past 20 years, leading us to propose a set of guidelines, which we hope will contribute to a better exploitation of this powerful tool.

SUBMITTER: Wioland H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8784122 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Celebrating 20 years of live single-actin-filament studies with five golden rules.

Wioland Hugo H Jégou Antoine A Romet-Lemonne Guillaume G

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20220101 3

The precise assembly and disassembly of actin filaments is required for several cellular processes, and their regulation has been scrutinized for decades. Twenty years ago, a handful of studies marked the advent of a new type of experiment to study actin dynamics: using optical microscopy to look at individual events, taking place on individual filaments in real time. Here, we summarize the main characteristics of this approach and how it has changed our ability to understand actin assembly dyna ...[more]

PMID: 35042781

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