Atomic structure of the vimentin central α-helical domain and its implications for intermediate filament assembly.

ABSTRACT: Together with actin filaments and microtubules, intermediate filaments (IFs) are the basic cytoskeletal components of metazoan cells. Over 80 human diseases have been linked to mutations in various IF proteins to date. However, the filament structure is far from being resolved at the atomic level, which hampers rational understanding of IF pathologies. The elementary building block of all IF proteins is a dimer consisting of an α-helical coiled-coil (CC) "rod" domain flanked by the flexible head and tail domains. Here we present three crystal structures of overlapping human vimentin fragments that comprise the first half of its rod domain. Given the previously solved fragments, a nearly complete atomic structure of the vimentin rod has become available. It consists of three α-helical segme

SUBMITTER: Chernyatina AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3427084 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature