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. 1991 Mar 1;274(Pt 2):421–425. doi: 10.1042/bj2740421

Effects of lithium ions on actin polymerization in the presence of magnesium ions.

R Colombo 1, A Milzani 1, P Contini 1, I Dalle Donne 1
PMCID: PMC1150155  PMID: 1848759

Abstract

In spite of the abundant literature, questions on the biological action of Li+ are far from being answered. In the present paper we demonstrate that modification of the salt composition of the medium for actin polymerization, by gradually replacing K+ with Li+, leads to a dose-related change in the time course of actin assembly. The presence of Li+ influences actin polymerization in vitro by enhancing nucleation and decreasing critical monomer concentration at steady state. Furthermore, Li+ stabilizes actin polymers mainly by lowering the absolute value of the dissociation rate constant (K-) and shifting (towards lower values of actin monomer concentrations) the range of G-actin concentrations in which filament-subunit flux can occur. The influence of Li+ on actin and tubulin polymerization in vitro suggests that cytoskeletal structures could be some of the cytoplasmic targets of this ion.

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