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Progressing actin: Formin as a processive elongation machine

Formins are a family of structurally conserved proteins that regulate the assembly of the fast-growing end of actin filaments. New work shows that the molecular mechanism of formin function is conserved but that the rates of the reactions vary within and between species to such a degree that the mechanisms of various formin family members may seem to differ qualitatively.

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Figure 1: Biophysical studies of formin-mediated processive barbed-end elongation.

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Kovar, D., Pollard, T. Progressing actin: Formin as a processive elongation machine. Nat Cell Biol 6, 1158–1159 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1204-1158

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