Yeast actin filaments display ATP-dependent sliding movement over surfaces coated with rabbit muscle myosin.

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used to study the function of components of the actin cytoskeleton in vivo, mainly because it is easy to derive and characterize mutations affecting these proteins. In contrast, biochemical studies have generally used proteins derived from higher eukaryotes. We have devised a simple procedure to prepare, in high yield, homogeneous native actin from wild-type and act1 mutant yeast. Using intensified video fluorescence microscopy, we found that actin filaments polymerized from these preparations exhibit ATP-dependent sliding movement over surfaces coated with rabbit skeletal muscle myosin. The rates of sliding movement of the wild-type and mutant yeast actins were each about half that of rabbit skeletal muscle actin under similar conditions. We conclude that over the large evolutionary distance between yeast and mammals there has been significant conservation of actin function, specifically the ability to be moved by interaction with myosin.