Small espin: a third actin-bundling protein and potential forked protein ortholog in brush border microvilli.

ABSTRACT: An approximately 30-kD isoform of the actin-binding/ bundling protein espin has been discovered in the brush borders of absorptive epithelial cells in rat intestine and kidney. Small espin is identical in sequence to the COOH terminus of the larger ( approximately 110-kD) espin isoform identified in the actin bundles of Sertoli cell-spermatid junctional plaques (Bartles, J.R., A. Wierda, and L. Zheng. 1996. J. Cell Sci. 109:1229-1239), but it contains two unique peptides at its NH2 terminus. Small espin was localized to the parallel actin bundles of brush border microvilli, resisted extraction with Triton X-100, and accumulated in the brush border during enterocyte differentiation/migration along the crypt-villus axis in adults. In transfected BHK fibroblasts, green fluorescent protein-sma

SUBMITTER: Bartles JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2132824 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature