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Visualizing branched actin filaments in lamellipodia by electron tomography

Nature Cell Biology volume 13, pages 1012–1013 (2011)Cite this article

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To the editor:

Urban et al.1 recently challenged the dendritic nucleation model of lamellipodia protrusion based on their inability to detect branched actin filaments in lamellipodia by electron tomography. We have carefully analysed the primary data that was provided as Supplementary Information by Urban et al., and report that there are numerous branches that have been overlooked by the authors.

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Figure 1: Branched actin filaments in the lamellipodium of 3T3 fibroblast.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Dominguez, M. Ostap and M. Lampson for their helpful comments on this Correspondence. This work was supported by NIH grants GM70898 to T.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, 415 South University avenue, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, USA

    Changsong Yang & Tatyana Svitkina

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  1. Changsong Yang
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  2. Tatyana Svitkina
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C.Y. and T.S. analysed data and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tatyana Svitkina.

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Yang, C., Svitkina, T. Visualizing branched actin filaments in lamellipodia by electron tomography. Nat Cell Biol 13, 1012–1013 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2321

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