Ionic transport along actin filaments

Changes in the intracellular electric potential and membrane current can induce electrical signal transmission, in the form of ionic wave packets, along conducting surface of cytoskeleton filaments. This feature provides the cytoskeletal matrix with a novel esoteric mechanism for neuron information processing. Age, cell type, and local conditions also affect cytoskeleton filament properties. This presentation will introduce a Mathematica application that implements a multiscale theory to study ionic currents along actin filaments. This computational and visualization tool characterizes actin from both muscle and non-muscle cells in physiological and pathological conditions. Users can select the environmental conditions, nucleotide state, actin isoform, and various mutants or wild-type actin filaments to study ionic signal properties. In our study, temperature changes, mutations, and pH differences resulted in different ion accumulations at the surface of the actin filament and variations in ionic conductivities. Consequently, wave packet velocity is affected moderately. As these effects are detectable, we conclude that the Mathematica application is crucial in understanding cytoskeleton filament dysfunctions and abnormalities, thus, advancing the prevention and treatment of cytoskeleton-associated diseases.