Elongation factor 1 alpha (EF1 alpha) is an abundant protein that binds aminoacyl-tRNA and ribosomes in a GTP-dependent manner. EF1 alpha also interacts with the cytoskeleton by binding and bundling actin filaments and microtubules. In this report, the effect of purified EF1 alpha on actin polymerization and depolymerization is examined. At molar ratios present in the cytosol, EF1 alpha signifi...

Mechanistically distinct polymerization systems can afford unique block copolymers that would not be accessible by mere sequential polymerization.

We examined the effects of mechanical forces on actin polymerization at focal adhesions (FAs). Actin polymerization at FAs was assessed by introducing fluorescence-labeled actin molecules into permeabilized fibroblasts cultured on fibronectin. When cell contractility was inhibited by the myosin-II inhibitor blebbistatin, actin polymerization at FAs was diminished, whereas alpha(5)beta(1) integr...

Histamine stimulation of swine carotid artery induces both contraction and actin polymerization. The importance of stimulus-induced actin polymerization is not known. Tyrosine phosphorylation of the scaffolding protein paxillin is thought to be an important regulator of actin polymerization. Noise temperature, hysteresivity, and phase angle are rheological measures of the fluidity of a tissue, ...

A comprehensive review is presented on the kinetics of polymerizations, as a summary of the studies on the polymerization kinetics performed in the authors' laboratory. Polymerizations were in the first place classified into several classes according to the relative magnitude of the rates of the elementary steps. The specific features of the kinetics were discussed by classifying into four main...

In free-radical polymerization, a monomer-initiator mixture is converted into a polymer. Depending on initial and boundary conditions, free-radical polymerization can occur either in a bulk mode (BP) or in a frontal mode (FP) via a propagating selfsustaining reaction front. The main goal of this paper is to study the role that bulk polymerization plays in frontal polymerization processes for va...

Microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), guanine nucleotides, and reaction temperature have substantial effects on the interaction of taxol with purified tubulin in 0.1 M glutamate. Without MAPs, taxol induced tubulin to polymerize only if GTP was present and the reaction mixture warmed. GTP was hydrolyzed in tandem with polymerization in stoichiometric amounts, while GDP inhibited both polymeri...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although commonly acknowledged as paramount in significance, the mechanics of cyanoacrylate polymerization remain poorly characterized and quantified for clinical applications. This prompted development of a simplistic model for the systematic study of polymerization and binding behaviors of cyanoacrylates. METHODS A sliding bed apparatus was constructed that linked a s...

While gas discharges under atmospheric pressure occur as filamentary discharges, most studies on plasma polymerization, or plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), were carried out in low-pressure (low temperature, non-equilibrium) plasma. However, it is reasonable to assume that the fundamentals of plasma polymerization found by low-pressure discharge apply to the gas phase in the filamentary ...