

PELLETING ACTIN
Materials:
- Ultra-Pure Actin (Cat. No. 160101) or Pure Actin (Cat. No. 190101)
- Actin Working Buffer (Cat. No. 000102; 5 mM Tris-HCl and 0.2 mM CaCl2, pH 8.0)
- Actin Polymer Buffer (10X; Cat. No. 000103; 500 mM KCl and 20 mM MgCl2)
- ATP
- DTT
- 2X Sample Buffer
Equipment:
- Microcentrifuge at 4°C
- Spectrophotometer
- Ultracentrifuge and rotor (i.e. Beckman TL-100 Tabletop Ultracentrifuge and TLA-100 rotor)
- SDS-Page system
Technical Notes:
- Avoid diluting actin beyond its critical concentration (dependent on ionic strength)
- Boiled factions containing Sample Buffer can be stored at -20°C for several weeks
Protocol:
1. Reconstitute actin to 0.4 mg/ml (see respective protocol for details)
2. Polymerize actin (see respective protocol for details)
3. Pellet
a. Spin at 48,000 rpm for 1 hour at 26°C in an ultracentrifuge
4. Collect supernatant and pellet fractions
a. Collect the supernatant and determine protein concentration by Bradford assay or A280 (extinction coefficient = 26,600 M-1cm-1)
b. Add an equal volume of 2X Sample Buffer to the supernatant fraction
c. Resuspend the pellet in 1X Sample Buffer to a final volume matching that of the supernatant fraction
d. Boil both fractions and analyze by SDS-PAGE
Figure 1: Ultra-Pure Actin is >90% polymerization-competent. Ultra-Pure Actin was polymerized in the absence (-PB) or presence (+PB) of Actin Polymer Buffer (10X, Cat. No. 000103; 50 mM KCl and 2 mM MgCl2) followed by centrifugation at 48k rpm for 1 hour. Pellet (P) and supernatant (S) fractions were collected and subjected to SDS-PAGE and Coomassie G250-staining. >90% of Ultra-Pure Actin was incorporated into filaments as determined by measuring the residual protein concentration in the supernatant fraction.