Dissection of the Ascaris sperm motility machinery identifies key proteins involved in major sperm protein-based amoeboid locomotion.

ABSTRACT: Although Ascaris sperm motility closely resembles that seen in many other types of crawling cells, the lamellipodial dynamics that drive movement result from modulation of a cytoskeleton based on the major sperm protein (MSP) rather than actin. The dynamics of the Ascaris sperm cytoskeleton can be studied in a cell-free in vitro system based on the movement of plasma membrane vesicles by fibers constructed from bundles of MSP filaments. In addition to ATP, MSP, and a plasma membrane protein, reconstitution of MSP motility in this cell-free extract requires cytosolic proteins that orchestrate the site-specific assembly and bundling of MSP filaments that generates locomotion. Here, we identify a fraction of cytosol that is comprised of a small number of proteins but contains all of the solub

SUBMITTER: Buttery SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC284809 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature