Volume 6 Issue 1, June 1996: 11-22
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Assemly of lamins in vitro
MIN GUNG WEI,XIANG JUN TONG, BIN CHEN, BO ZHANG,ZHONG FAN LIU MING XIAODING,ZHONG HE ZHAI
College of Life and Molecular Engineering, Peking University Beijing 100871,China
Correspondence:
After lamins A,B and C were isolated and pirofoed from rat liver, their assembly properties were examined by electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy using negative staining and the plycerol coating method, respectively. By varying the assembly time or the ionic conditions under shich polymerization takes place , we have observed different stages of lamin assembly, which may provide clues on the structure of the 10 nm lamin filaments. At the first level of stucture organization , two lamin polypeptides associate laterally into dimers with the two domains being paralled and in register ,. At the second level of structure organization , two dimers associate in a half-staggered and antiparallel fashion to form a tetramer 75 nm in length . At the third level of structural organization , 4-10 lamin tetramers associate laterally in register to form 75 nm long 10 nm filaments , which in turn combine head to head into long , fully assmenled lamin filaments. The assembled lamin filaments are nonpolar.
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