Protein filament

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In biology, a filament is a long chain of protein subunits, such as those found in hair, muscle, or in flagella. They are often bundled together for strength and rigidity. Some cellular examples include:

• Actin filaments
• Microtubules
• Intermediate filaments

Filaments are also highly dynamic in nature and far from a static structure that acts as a stable "scaffold" for a cell. Some phenomena that profile a protein filaments' dynamics are:

• Treadmilling
• Nucleation

[edit] External links

• http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss4cell.html