Reconstitution of cytolinker-mediated crosstalk between actin and vimentin

Cell shape and motility are determined by the cytoskeleton, an interpenetrating network of actin filaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments. The biophysical properties of each filament type individually have been studied extensively by cell-free reconstitution. By contrast, the interactions between the three cytoskeletal networks are...

Revealing the molecular origins of fibrin's elastomeric properties by in situ X-ray scattering

Fibrin is an elastomeric protein forming highly extensible fiber networks that provide the scaffold of blood clots. Here we reveal the molecular mechanisms that explain the large extensibility of fibrin networks by performing in situ small angle X-ray scattering measurements while applying a shear deformation. We simultaneously measure shear...