Drosophila singed mutants were named for their gnarled bristle phenotype but severe alleles are also female sterile. Recently, singed protein was shown to have 35% peptide identity with echinoderm fascin. Fascin is found in actin filament bundles in microvilli of sea urchin eggs and in filopodial extensions in coelomocytes. We show that Drosophila singed is required for actin filament bundle fo...

Self-assembly of complex structures is commonplace in biology but often poorly understood. In the case of the actin cytoskeleton, a great deal is known about the components that include higher order structures, such as lamellar meshes, filopodial bundles, and stress fibers. Each of these cytoskeletal structures contains actin filaments and cross-linking proteins, but the role of cross-linking p...

As metastasis is responsible for most cancer-related deaths, understanding the cellular and molecular events that lead to cancer cell migration invasion will certainly provide insights into novel anti-metastatic therapeutic targets. Fascin-1 an actin-bundling protein fundamental all physiological or pathological processes require migration. It cross-linking actin microfilaments during formation...

Background: Fascin is the primary actin cross-linker in filopodia, membrane protrusions that form upon remodeling of cytoskeleton beneath plasma membrane. Its role critical tumor cell migration, invasion and metastasis. Studies human cancer demonstrate high fascin levels correlate with lymph node distant metastases, clinically aggressive phenotypes, poor prognosis decreased survival. Deletion g...

Although thyroid cancers are not among common malignancies, they rank as the first prevalent endocrine cancers in human. According to the results of published studies it has been shown the gradual progress from normal to the neoplastic cell in the process of tumor formation is the result of sequential genetic events. Among them we may point the mutations and rearrangements occurred in a group o...

Extracts of the soluble cytoplasmic proteins of the sea urchin egg form gels of different composition and properties depending on the temperature used to induce actin polymerization. At temperatures that inactivate myosin, a gel composed of actin, fascin, and a 220,000-mol-wt protein is formed. Fascin binds actin into highly organized units with a characteristic banding pattern, and these actin...

During cellular migration, regulated actin assembly takes place at the cell leading edge, with continuous disassembly deeper in the cell interior. Actin polymerization at the plasma membrane results in the extension of cellular protrusions in the form of lamellipodia and filopodia. To understand how cells regulate the transformation of lamellipodia into filopodia, and to determine the major fac...

Invasion into adjacent brain parenchyma is the key cause of recurrent human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The role of interleukin 6 (IL-6) in the malignant progression of glioma remains undefined. Here, we found that IL-6 promotes the invasion of U87 MG human glioma cells but not in U343 cells. An advanced level of STAT3 activity, and increased expression and secretion of MMP-2, induced by IL-...

We report the development and characterization of an in vitro system for the formation of filopodia-like bundles. Beads coated with actin-related protein 2/3 (Arp2/3)-activating proteins can induce two distinct types of actin organization in cytoplasmic extracts: (1) comet tails or clouds displaying a dendritic array of actin filaments and (2) stars with filament bundles radiating from the bead...

Mesenchymal cells such as fibroblasts are weakly polarized and reorient directionality by a lamellipodial branching mechanism that is stabilized by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling. However, the mechanisms by which new lamellipodia are initiated and directed are unknown. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to monitor cytoskeletal and signaling dynamics in migrating...